










Hilda and the Wishes 












































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■ 






























Hilda and the Wishes 


By 

Harry Thurston Peck 

Author of 


“ The Adventures of Mabel ” 


Illustrated by 
Melanie Norton Leonard 







l 

7 " 


* 


New York 

Dodd, Mead & Company 

1907 


R h 

T335 

h; 


LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

OCT 28 »90f 




Copyright, 1907, by 
Dodd, Mead & Company 
Published October , i907 


ALL THE CHILDREN 
who 

are fond of Mabel 
this book 

is affectionately dedicated 



Contents 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I How Hilda Got Her Name .... 1 

II When the Great Snow Fell ... 19 

III Hilda and the Elf 59 

IV The First Wish 72 

V The Second Wish 82 

VI The Third Wish 101 

VII The Light in the Kitchen . . . . 118 

VIII Grimgrim 138 

IX Hilda Makes a New Friend .... 163 

X Frieda Plans Mischief 180 

XI The Six Dresses 195 

XII The Prince Arrives 22 4 > 










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Illustrations 


Hilda Saves the Elf 

. . . . 

Frontispiece 

The Fairy Disappears 

. . Facing page 

16 ' 

In the Snow .... 

it 

44 

56 y 

At the Fence 

it 

it 

110 / 

“ It Must Be a Robber! ” 

it 

it 

132 / 

The Witch's Circle . 

it 

44 

148 / 

Frieda Inks the Dresses 

it 

44 

222 ^ 

The Prince Arrives . 

44 

it 

232 /" 









' 


. 

















. 




































































































. 




















I 


HOW HILDA GOT HER NAME 

P ERHAPS you have heard of a little 
girl named Mabel, who lived in a cot- 
tage with her Grandma and her 
brother Walter and Jane the cook. If you 
have, then you know how she came to under- 
stand animal-talk and to whistle the Call 
which made all animals kind to her, and you 
will remember her adventures with the Good 
Wolf, and Rex, and the great giant Cormo- 
ran, and the giant’s daughter Elsie, and the 
Brownies in the Brownie Cave. Her Grand- 
ma’s cottage, you know, was quite a long 
way from the village where Mabel and Rex 
caught the robbers, and where the Judge 
questioned Mabel about them, and where all 
the Policemen saluted her with their clubs. 
Well, just outside that same village, there 


2 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
stood a large house with trees all around it 
and a lawn in front and another lawn behind 
it. At the time when Mabel had her first 
adventure, there was born in this house a lit- 
tle baby girl, whose father and mother were 
very proud of her. They used to have the 
nurse bring her down to the broad verandah 
in a small, white, fluffy bundle; and then 
they would lay her in the big hammock and 
let her swing ever so gently back and forth 
in the soft summer breeze while they both 
sat there and watched her. She was a very 
pretty baby and never cried, but just made 
little coos when they patted her; and though 
she was so very little, she seemed to love the 
sun and the blue sky and the green leaves, 
and to smile as she lay in the hammock and 
looked at the world out of her baby eyes. 

One day when the three were there to- 
gether, the baby’s father said: 

“Well, Edith, don’t you think the baby 
ought to be christened pretty soon? She 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 3 
really hasn’t any name yet — only just Baby, 
and Darling, and Kitten. Before long she 
must have a real name all to herself.” 

“Yes,” said the mother, who looked just 
a little troubled. 

“ Of course,” he went on, “ I should like 
to call her Edith after you; only I don’t 
want there to be any other Edith except you. 
And there are lots of pretty names for girls.” 

The baby’s mother did not answer, but 
looked still more troubled. He did not notice 
this, and kept on talking. 

“Amy is a very pretty name, don’t you 
think? And so is Mildred. And so are 
Claire and Ethel and Lily and Madeleine and 
Helen. Or, if you like names that are a little 
old-fashioned, why not call her Ruth, or 
Grace, or Esther? You know it’s rather odd 
that you haven’t said anything about giving 
her a name, though she’s nearly four months 
old now.” 

Still the mother said nothing; and then he 


4 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
turned to her and noticed that her face was 
very serious and that she had something on 
her mind. 

“ Why, what is it, dear? ” he asked quickly. 
“ Is anything the matter? ” 

She looked up and then told him what she 
had been thinking about all the while. 

“I’m afraid you won’t like it,” she said; 
“but you remember how my father and 
mother both died when I was a little girl, and 
how I was brought up by my aunt? ” 

“Of course I remember that” he said. 
“ You were brought up by your Aunt Maria.” 

“Yes,” she answered; “and Aunt Maria 
was good to me in her way. I wasn’t always 
happy with her, but she meant to be kind, and, 
of course, I am grateful to her. That is why 
I made her a promise when I was married — 
she asked it so hard that I had to. I couldn’t 
refuse.” 

“Dear me!” said he. “What promise? 
You never told me.” 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 5 

“ No,” she replied. “ I didn’t like to. She 
made me promise that if I had a baby-girl, I 
would name it after her.” 

“ Good gracious! Do you mean that Baby 
has got to be called Maria?” 

“Yes, I think she really must be, for I 
promised. Perhaps it was foolish of me, but 
Aunt Maria would have been quite angry if 
I hadn’t. And if Baby had been a boy, then 
the promise wouldn’t matter.” 

He got up out of his deck-chair and walked 
around the verandah several times. 

“ Well! ” said he at last. “ It’s rather aw- 
ful. I don’t want Baby’s name to remind me 
of your Aunt Maria all the time. I don’t 
care very much for your Aunt Maria.” 

“ She is a very good woman,” said the 
young mother in a doubting sort of way. 

“ Oh, yes, she’s good ” said he; “but she’s 
not very pleasant. She talks to you as if you 
were still a child, and when she comes here 
she acts as if she owned the house. And I 


6 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


don’t fancy the name anyhow. It doesn’t suit 
Baby at all! ” 

His voice sounded almost angry; but as he 
looked around he saw that there were tears 
in his wife’s eyes. All at once he stopped 
walking up and down and went to her and 
took her hand. 

“ There, there, dear,” he said; “ forgive me. 
It’s all right. We must keep the promise. 
Baby shall be christened Maria, and if we 
don’t like the name, we can go on calling her 
Baby or Darling just the same as we do now.” 

“You don’t really mind?” asked she, 
timidly. 

“No, no,” said he, laughing. “Anything 
that you want. And I’ll arrange to have the 
christening next week, and invite your Aunt 
Maria to come and see it done! ” 

And so it was settled that the baby was to 
be christened Maria. 

When the day for the christening arrived, 
it was bright and sunny — just the day for 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 7 
christening so beautiful a baby. At ten 
o’clock in the morning Aunt Maria came 
across the lawn. She had walked from the 
railway station and was very warm and out 
of breath. She was a large, stout woman; 
and the walk in the sun had made her face 
quite red. She wore a purple dress and had 
a small round hat with a red feather in it. 
When she reached the verandah she stopped 
to wipe her face with a pink silk handkerchief. 

“ Oh, how do you do, Aunt Maria? ” said 
the baby’s mother, coming down the steps 
and kissing her. 

“ I’m not well at all,” said Aunt Maria in 
a short, wheezy voice. “ I had the ear-ache 
all last night. And now I’ve walked miles in 
the broiling sun! ” 

“ It’s only half a mile to the station,” said 
her niece; “ and we would have sent a carriage 
for you if you had let us know what train you 
were coming on. Why didn’t you take a 
cab?” 


8 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ I never take cabs ! ” answered Aunt 
Maria. “I don’t believe they’re clean. And 
they charge you twenty-five cents for that 
little distance ! ” 

Aunt Maria forgot that she had at first 
said it was miles. Presently she took a seat 
on the verandah and began rocking hard in 
a big chair. 

The baby’s father shook hands with 
her and thanked her for coming to the 
christening. 

“ Of course I came,” said Aunt Maria. 
“ Did you think I’d stay away? Where’s the 
child?” 

“ There she is, in the hammock. Doesn’t 
she look sweet? ” 

“ Good gracious ! ” cried Aunt Maria. “ Do 
you mean to say that you let her lie there 
right in a draught? She’ll get cold and die 
in twenty-four hours! Edith, I thought you 
had more sense! But I see you’re just the 
same as ever. You need me to come and stay 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 9 


with you awhile to train you and see that 
things are properly done.” 

“ But she lies in the hammock every day,” 
said the mother. “And she’s never had a 
single cold yet.” 

Aunt Maria sniffed, and went on rocking. 

“ What a ridiculous way to dress the 
child ! ” she said after a minute or two. “ All 
that white material soils so easily. And real 
lace, too! I should put her in a good plain 
calico wrap that wouldn’t need to be washed 
every two minutes. If you begin to pamper 
the child in that way, you’ll spoil her before 
she cuts a tooth! — Where’s she to be chris- 
tened? ” she asked all of a sudden. 

“ Oh, in the church opposite, at twelve 
o’clock. It’s where we go, and it’s so near 
that we can walk across the green — just the 
four of us.” 

“Well!” said Aunt Maria, who was now 
growing cooler. “ That’s convenient. I’m 
glad there’s not going to be any fuss. I hate 


10 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


fussing. I never fuss myself. You remem- 
ber your promise, Edith, about the name? ” 

“ Oh, yes,” said her niece. “ She is to be 
called Maria, after you.” 

“ It’s a good, strong name,” said Aunt 
Maria. “And you’ll naturally be proud to 
remember always that it’s my name, too. I 
hope she’ll grow up to be like me. I’ve 
brought up five children besides you, Edith; 
and, if I do say it, I’m a master hand at train- 
ing them. I suppose I’m to be the god- 
mother as long as I let the child have my 
name? ” 

“ Oh, yes, I suppose so.” 

“Well, then, you’d better tell the clergy- 
man, so that when he says ‘ Name this child,’ 
he will look at me. Then I’ll name it.” 

“ Very well,” said the baby’s father. “ I’ll 
tell him.” 

So just at noon they walked slowly across 
the green to the church. The baby was car- 
ried in her father’s arms, and as they went 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 11 
slowly up the broad aisle the clergyman came 
out into the chancel and stood beside the 
marble font to meet them. It was a fine old 
church of dark grey stone, all covered with 
ivy. Inside it was cool and still. Here and 
there a shaft of sunlight shone through the 
beautiful painted windows and was changed 
to rich red or to yellow gold. 

The baby’s father and mother, with Aunt 
Maria, stood before the font, and the clergy- 
man began the service. After he had prayed, 
and had read out of a little book, he leaned 
forward and took the baby from her mother. 
The little thing lay quietly in his arms and 
smiled up into his kindly face. Then he 
turned to Aunt Maria and said : 

“ Name this child.” 

Aunt Maria was very much flustered be- 
cause she felt that she was so important. She 
gasped, and was just going to answer, when a 
strange, clear voice behind them said in the 
stillness : 


12 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ Her name is Hilda ! " 

Everyone turned quickly around to see who 
had spoken. They saw a lady standing close 
behind them and looking at the baby. It was 
no one whom they had ever seen before. She 
was tall and very graceful, with dark hair, 
and two wonderful great eyes that seemed to 
glow and gleam like some strange kind of 
jewels. She was dressed all in grey — a sort 
of silvery grey that shimmered in the dim 
light. The clergyman was the most surprised 
of all, for he had been looking straight be- 
fore him all the time and yet he had not seen 
her there before she spoke. Aunt Maria 
stared and grew red in the face. Then the 
lady said again in her clear voice : 

“ Her name is Hilda.” 

Aunt Maria gave a great heave and fairly 
puffed with anger. 

“Woman! ” she said. 

But the lady just looked at Aunt Maria. 
Only one look out of her wonderful eyes — 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 13 
yet it made Aunt Maria shrink back afraid. 
She could not bear the look, it was so strange 
and piercing. So she kept still. The clergy- 
man said once more: 

“ Name this child.” 

This time he looked at the baby’s father 
and not at Aunt Maria. But it was the tall 
lady who spoke for the third time: 

“ Her name is Hilda.” 

It was so still that you could hear Aunt 
Maria breathe hard. But finally she spoke 
in a voice as though she were saying a lesson 
which she didn’t like: 

“Yes; her name is Hilda.” 

Then the clergyman went on with the ser- 
vice, and the baby was christened Hilda. 

When it was all done, everybody drew a 
long breath and turned to the tall lady. She 
seemed even taller and more majestic than 
ever; but she smiled at them and they saw 
that she was very beautiful. Hilda’s father 
spoke to her. 


14 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ May I ask, madam,” said he, “ to what 
.we owe the honour of your presence? ” 

‘‘Yes; 55 she answered. “ I am a Fairy, 
and once in every hundred years I choose a 
girl-child for my god-daughter. Now I have 
chosen yours, and you may well be glad; for 
I shall bring her everything that is good. 
Only, it is my right to name her, and I have 
named her Hilda.” 

Aunt Maria was still staring, and now she 
gave a little grunt. 

But the Fairy paid no attention to her. 
She leaned forward to where the baby lay in 
the arms of her mother, who had once more 
taken her. 

“ You shall be good and brave and true,” 
she said; “for goodness and courage and 
truth are the best things in the world. And 
when you are eighteen years of age I shall 
come to you again. Until that time you shall 
not see me ; but things will happen to you that 
do not happen to other children.” 


HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 15 
Then she bent low over the baby’s face and 
touched its forehead with her lips. Again 
the baby smiled, and lifting her little hands 
she stroked the Fairy’s face. 

“ And now,” said the Fairy, “ I shall give 
you a christening gift that can be seen.” 

She raised her hand, and in it was a long 
rod that looked like frosted silver. No one 
had noticed it before. With it she touched 
the baby’s left hand. As she did so a light 
streamed from the end of the wand. Then 
they all saw that on the baby’s fourth finger 
there was a tiny ring — oh, such a tiny ring! 
And in it was a tiny jewel that gleamed like a 
little ray of the light that had shone from the 
end of the wand. Then the Fairy looked 
them all in the face once more, and they felt 
the power of her eyes. 

“ I know,” she said, “ that you do not quite 
believe that I am a Fairy. But I will give 
you proof. You see me here? Then watch 
me — all of you — very closely.” 


16 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

They all looked hard at her as she stood 
before them — at her shimmering dress and 
her dark hair and her great eyes — and then, 
while they looked they all gave a sudden cry 
— for she wasn’t there! She had vanished! 
Hilda’s father thought he saw, just for a 
second, a faint shape melting in the air — but 
was not sure, and it was gone before he really 
knew. 

They looked at each other in silence. No 
one knew what to say. Even Aunt Maria 
was silent. So the clergyman closed his book 
and shook hands with everybody and went 
away; and the rest of them passed out of 
the church into the bright sunshine. But 
still they said nothing about the Fairy. It 
all seemed so impossible. They could not 
believe their own eyes and ears. But Hilda’s 
father and mother were very happy in their 
hearts as they walked across the green to 
their own house. 

“We have ordered a special luncheon for 




The Fairy Disappears 



M E. 1 
uto^aKil 








HOW SHE GOT HER NAME 17 
the christening,” said the mother to Aunt 
Maria. 

“ Very proper,” said Aunt Maria, who was 
fond of eating. 

And so they all went into the pretty din- 
ing-room where the table was set with ever 
so many dainty things, among great bowls 
of roses. Hilda’s father was in high spirits. 
He laughed and sang bits of songs, and 
tossed Hilda up and down, and romped like 
a boy; for he felt that something very good 
had happened. Aunt Maria hardly spoke; 
but she was not very much out of sorts, as 
she ate five chicken patties, and half a lob- 
ster salad, besides cake and jam and pop- 
overs, and she drank four cups of green 
tea. 

When she had finished, there was a car- 
riage to take her to the station. She looked 
very much subdued, but she kissed the baby, 
and gave her a German-silver mug. 

After she had gone, Hilda’s mother sat 


18 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
down and drew a long breath. Then she 
asked : 

“Well! What do you really think of it 
all? ” 

“Think?” said Hilda’s father. “Why, I 
don’t think at all. I just can’t. It’s too 
much for me. But, I say! I’m awfully glad 
the baby wasn’t named Maria!” 


II 


WHEN" THE GREAT SNOW FELL 

H ILDA grew out of babyhood al- 
most before her father and mother 
knew it. At first she was so small 
and pink and helpless that it made them 
laugh to think that she would ever be any 
bigger. They couldn’t quite believe that she 
would ever learn to talk. But, as the days 
and weeks and months went quickly by, she 
changed without their really noticing it; be- 
cause it all happened bit by bit. First of all, 
she came to know the different people whom 
she saw. Then she would no longer lie still 
in her pretty cradle, but was eager to creep 
about in the room. And she was so strong 
and sturdy that pretty soon, when she had 
crawled up to her father’s feet as he sat 
watching her, she would take hold of him 

19 


20 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


and hoist herself up until she stood on her 
own little feet beside him and laughed glee- 
fully into his eyes. And after that, it was 
not long before she could walk alone, and 
go pattering about the house all day. 

And then her cooings and gurgles 
changed into something like words, and 
finally into real words, though strangers were 
not always sure just what they meant, and 
did not know at once that “ pukka ” was 
sugar, and “i-keem,” ice-cream; and that, 
when Hilda had eaten a piece of chocolate 
and sighed blissfully and said “ oggon,” she 
meant that it was all gone. But pretty soon 
she could say her words as other people said 
them, and could put them together into sen- 
tences, and then, all of a sudden, her father 
and mother said to each other: “ Why, Hilda 
isn’t a baby any more! ” 

They never spoke of the Fairy. Somehow 
or other they felt unwilling to do so, al- 
though they couldn’t have told you why. It 


THE GREAT SNOW 


21 


was so strange that they found it very hard 
to believe, and yet — and yet they had both 
seen her, and heard her speak, and watched 
her vanish away. And there was the ring 
which she had placed on Hilda’s finger. 
Hilda’s mother used to say to herself when 
Hilda was still a tiny thing: 

“ Very soon this ring will be too small for 
Baby’s finger. As she grows, the ring will 
be so tight that I shall have to take it off. 
Then I shall be pretty sure that, after all, the 
lady was not a Fairy, but only a kind and 
rather friendly person who just made be- 
lieve.” 

But then, as Hilda grew and grew, the 
ring never became too small. The baby’s 
hands were at first just two wee bits of warm, 
pink flesh, and the fingers were so very tiny 
that you could scarcely separate them and 
count them. Y et, when the hands had grown 
into real hands, sturdy and strong and grace- 
ful, and each finger was ever so much larger 


22 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


than at first, the ring still fitted perfectly. 
It, too, was larger, and the beautiful gem 
in it gleamed and glowed and sparkled when 
the light fell on it, and even in the dark it 
gave out a soft blur of brightness. 

One day Hilda’s mother was so curious 
about the ring that she wanted very much 
to slip it off and look at it very closely. Yet 
she felt that she ought not to do so, for in 
some way it seemed as if she didn’t have the 
right, or that something might happen to 
Hilda if she removed the ring, even for a 
minute. 

Still, she said to herself : 

“I won’t take it off, but I’ll just slip it 
down to the tip of the finger so that I can 
peep inside the gold hoop and see if anything 
is engraved there.” 

So she took the baby’s hand and tried to 
slip the ring partly down her finger. But, to 
her surprise, it wouldn’t move at all — not 
even a hair’s breadth, and when she tried 


THE GREAT SNOW 


23 


harder it was just the same. She could not 
stir the ring. So she kissed the little finger, 
and stopped trying. But it made her won- 
der all the more. 

A few months later, something else hap- 
pened. Hilda’s nurse had to be away for 
a whole day, because her sister was going 
to be married; and so another nurse came in 
to take her place. This girl’s name was 
Lena, and she was a pleasant enough girl, 
with sleek black hair arid a quiet way of 
moving about. But her eyes were small and 
sly, and she never looked anybody in the 
face. 

However, she took such good care of 
Hilda, and knew so well just what to do, 
that toward evening Hilda’s mother left her 
in charge of the child for an hour or two, 
until Alice, the regular nurse, should come 
back. No one else was in the house at the 
time; and so Lena took the baby into the li- 
brary and sat there with her, singing softly 


24 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
to her until Hilda fell fast asleep in the 
waning light. 

Now, as Lena rocked the child and bent 
over her, she suddenly noticed the ring that 
was shining on the small finger. Out of it 
came sparkles like red and blue and golden 
fire. 

“ Golly!” said Lena to herself as she 
stopped singing. “ 111 bet that’s a dia- 
mond! ” 

She lifted the hand and held it up. A 
last sliver of sunlight darted in at the win- 
dow and fell full upon the ring. At once 
the gem, as though struck into a cascade of 
fire, glittered with a thousand tiny sparks. 

“ It is a diamond!” repeated Lena, look- 
ing at it greedily. “ It ain’t a big one, but 
I guess it’s fine. I never seen anything like 
that on a baby’s hand before.” 

Now, Lena was kind to children and knew 
how to take good care of them, but she was 
not honest, and for more than a year had 


25 


THE GREAT SNOW 
been a thief. She had never yet stolen any- 
thing very valuable from the families in 
which she had been a nurse ; but she had taken 
ribbons, and handkerchiefs, and bits of lace, 
and people had suspected her and sent her 
away, so that she did not stay very long in 
any one place. This time she found herself 
with what she thought was a diamond ring, 
and she was greatly tempted to steal it. 
There was nobody in the house; and the 
longer she looked at the beautiful gem, the 
more she wanted it. Precious stones have 
a strange power over the minds of many 
people, and make them willing to do almost 
anything to get these wonderful jewels. So 
Lena looked and longed, and at last she 
thought to herself: 

“ I can slip this ring off just before Alice 
comes. No one will notice that it is gone un- 
til I have left the house, and then they can’t 
be sure that I took it. They will think that 
it fell off — and the baby can’t tell.” 


26 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

She looked around in a sly, stealthy way. 
Just then she heard steps on the walk out- 
side. 

“ It’s Alice,” she said. “ I must take it 
now.” 

So she laid Hilda among the cushions on 
the couch, and quickly grasped the hand on 
which the ring was sparkling. She seized it 
in her fingers and gave the ring a swift, 
sharp pull. All at once a scorching pain, 
like that from a red-hot coal, ran through 
her fingers and into her hand and up her 
arm. It burned and stung so that she sprang 
to her feet and gave a loud cry. Just then 
the door opened and Hilda’s mother walked 
into the room. 

“What is the matter, Lena?” she asked. 

“Oh, my fingers! They’re burnt!” cried 
Lena, putting them in her mouth, and danc- 
ing with the pain. 

Hilda’s mother looked down at the baby, 
whose little hand was lying stretched out. 


THE GREAT SNOW 27 
Upon it the ring was gleaming; but, instead 
of many colours, it was now all a bright 
and angry red. Hilda’s mother turned 
quickly to the girl beside her. 

“ What have you been doing to the ring? ” 
she asked in a short, sharp voice. “ Have you 
tried to take it off?” 

“N-n-n-o!” sobbed Lena, who was no 
longer in pain, but who was frightened. “ I 
— I — was only turning it around on baby’s 
hand.” 

“Well, you may go now. I wish you to 
leave at once. I will take care of Hilda until 
Alice comes.” 

“Yes, ma’am,” said Lena, very glad to 
get off so easily. And a moment later she 
was hurrying down the steps of the verandah 
and off to the railway station. Hilda, on the 
couch, woke up and smiled sleepily as she 
saw her mother bending over her. 

The very next day Hilda’s mother took 
her to a great city many miles distant. They 


28 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
went by the train, and Alice was with them 
to carry Hilda, who was already growing 
very heavy. When they reached the city 
they were driven in a carriage to a jeweller’s 
— the most famous jeweller’s in the whole 
country. It was a magnificent place, with 
an immense entrance and men in uniform to 
open the doors; and inside in long crystal 
cases there were thousands upon thousands 
of every kind of precious stone. Hilda’s 
mother went straight to a little room at one 
end of the first floor, and asked to see the 
head jeweller. Pretty soon he came in and 
closed the door. He had spent all his life 
collecting, and studying, and setting jewels, 
and he knew more about them than anybody 
else. 

“ What can I do for you, Madam?” said 
the head jeweller, turning to Hilda’s mother. 
He did not like to be sent for, because he 
was a very busy man; but he was too polite 
to say so. 


29 


THE GREAT SNOW 

“ I have called to ask you to examine the 
stone in a ring on my daughter’s hand,” said 
Hilda’s mother. 

The head jeweller was a little annoyed. 

“Very well,” said he. “Please take the 
ring off.” 

Hilda’s mother hesitated a moment. 

“ I — I — can’t take it off,” she said. “ It 
seems too tight, and it would make baby cry 
to pull it hard.” 

“Oh, very well!” said the head jeweller. 
“ Only in that case, you know, it’ll have to 
be taken off pretty soon.” 

“Yes, perhaps,” said Hilda’s mother, with 
a little smile. “ But, just for to-day, would 
you mind looking at it while it is on her 
hand? ” 

The head jeweller leaned over and lifted 
Hilda’s hand, and looked at the ring in a 
careless sort of way. Then all of a sudden 
he started and gave a kind of gasp. He 
stared at the ring with all his eyes. A mo- 


30 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


ment later, he took a strange-looking magni- 
fying glass from his pocket, and through it 
he peered at the gem in the ring. Pretty 
soon he went out and got another kind 
of glass and screwed it into one of his eyes. 
All the time he kept making little grunts 
and funny sounds of surprise as he went 
on gazing. Finally he leaned back in his 
chair and drew a long breath. 

“ Well,” said Hilda’s mother, “ what is 
it?” 

“ Madam,” replied the head jeweller, “ I 
don’t know what it is. At first I thought 
it was a diamond, and then I thought it was 
an opal; but it is really neither of them, and 
it is more beautiful than both of them to- 
gether. Never in my life have I seen or 
heard of such a gem as this. May I ask 
where it came from? ” 

“ Oh,” said Hilda’s mother, “ it was a pres- 
ent to the baby from her godmother.” 

“Wonderful! Most astonishing!” said 


THE GREAT SNOW 31 
the head jeweller: “ It must be the only one 
of its kind in the world. It is priceless ! And 
let me tell you something else: The ring in 
which it is set looks to you like gold, does it 
not? ” 

“ Yes, of course. I have always supposed 
that it was gold.” 

“ But it isn’t. It looks like gold, but it 
is not gold, nor is it silver, or platinum, or 
any other metal that I ever heard of. Such 
a ring should be kept with the greatest care. 
Now, excuse me, but it ought not to be on 
a baby’s finger. It might fall off, or some- 
one might steal it.” 

“ Oh,” said Hilda’s mother, smiling to her- 
self, “ I’m not afraid that it will drop off, or 
that anyone will steal it.” 

Then she thanked the head jeweller, who 
in his turn thanked her for letting him ex- 
amine such a wonderful ring. But from 
that day Hilda’s mother knew that the 
strange lady in silver-grey was really and 


32 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

truly a Fairy, and she thought very often of 
all that the Fairy had said of Hilda. 

Meanwhile Hilda was growing larger and 
stronger every day. She had beautiful dark 
hair and frank clear eyes, and she was so 
well that she never was ill for a single hour, 
even when her little white teeth were com- 
ing in. After she began to talk she was 
quick to notice everything, and would ask 
all sorts of wise questions, while she never 
forgot what people told her. And she was 
full of fun, and would play for hours with 
her father, pretending that she was hunting 
bears, or that she was a princess, or a gipsy, 
or sometimes even a barber. 

One grey morning in November, when 
she was a little more than four years old, 
she was having breakfast, sitting in her 
high chair by her father, when the doorbell 
rang, and Aunt Maria came in. She had a 
shopping-bag in one hand, and was bundled 


THE GREAT SNOW 83 
up in a long cloak. She seemed in a great 
hurry. 

“Oh!” she said at once, without sitting 
down. “ I want to see if Hilda can’t come 
over and spend the day with us. There is to 
be a — a little party. Just two or three chil- 
dren besides Clarence. I’m going to the city 
to do some shopping. I’ll not be gone long, 
but I don’t like to leave Clarence all alone — 
poor boy! So I’ve asked some other nice chil- 
dren to come in. They will have a special 
lunch and can play games together, and I 
want very much to have Hilda join them. I 
know that it will all help to amuse Clarence.” 

Clarence was Aunt Maria’s youngest son. 
Hilda’s father smiled when he heard this in- 
vitation. 

“ Why,” he said, “ it looks like a cold day 
— going to snow, maybe. Hilda couldn’t do 
much at home, and no doubt she would be 
glad to go. Would you, Hilda? ” 

“Ye-e-s,” answered Hilda rather slowly. 


34 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

She did not seem anxious about the party. 

Aunt Maria eyed her rather sharply. 

“You visit us very seldom, Hilda,” said 
she in a severe tone. “I should think you 
would be glad enough to spend the day with 
Clarence. If I do say it, he is a very remark- 
able boy — so bright and witty.” 

So it was arranged that Hilda was to go, 
and it turned out that Aunt Maria expected 
Hilda’s father to drive the child over to the 
party, since Aunt Maria herself was going 
straight to the city by the next train. As 
soon as this was settled, Aunt Maria hurried 
off to the railway station. 

“ Come on, Hilda! ” said her father. “ The 
buggy’ll be ready in no time. Wrap your- 
self up well for the two-mile drive, for it’s 
awfully cold. What’s the matter? You 
don’t look as though you wanted to go.” 

“ No, papa,” said Hilda. “ I — I don’t like 
Clarence very much.” 

“Well, I don’t wonder; but there’ll be 


THE GREAT SNOW 


35 


other children there, and you needn’t listen to 
Clarence all the time. Besides, it’s true that 
you don’t often go to Aunt Maria’s, and I 
think she feels a little hurt.” 

So presently Hilda and her father were 
rattling over the frozen roads. Hilda looked 
like a kitten, she was so closely bundled up in 
her mother’s long fur coat, out of which her 
rosy little face looked at the horse as he 
dashed along the way. Before the two-mile 
drive was ended a fine snow began to fall, at 
first quite thin, and then thicker, until, when 
Hilda was lifted out at Aunt Maria’s cot- 
tage, the ground was already white, and 
the wind had begun to drive the snow into 
great swirling masses and to pile it into 
drifts. 

“Well, good-bye, Hilda,” called out her 
father as he blew a kiss to her and turned the 
horse around. “ Have a good time. Aunt 
Maria said she’d bring you home this even- 

• ^ >> 
mg. 


86 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

And away he drove, soon lost to sight in 
the whirl of falling snow. 

“How do, Hilda?” said Clarence, as he 
opened the door for her. 

He was ten years old. He had long, thin 
legs and sloping shoulders. His hair was 
sandy, his face quite pale, and his eyes 
watery. But he looked as though he were 
quite pleased with himself. 

“ Come in,” he went on. “ Ma asked quite 
a number, but only two have come — Marie 
and Tubby. I don’t see why the bigger boys 
and girls stayed away. I don’t like just or- 
dinary children. But I s’pose I’ll have to 
stand it. Youll have a good time, even if I 
don’t.” 

They went into the little hall. On one side 
of it was the dining-room, and on the other 
side the sitting-room. Back of the dining- 
room was the kitchen. There were no other 
rooms on that floor. 

Marie and Tubby rushed out to see Hilda. 


THE GREAT SNOW 37 
Marie was a very pretty girl of six. Tubby 
was a dear little boy who was not yet three 
years old. He was as plump as a partridge, 
and his yellow hair was all tousled over his 
face and kept getting into his big blue eyes, 
that sometimes twinkled with fun and some- 
times were sober as a judge’s. His real name 
was Reginald, but everybody called him 
Tubby. He went up to Hilda and put a fat 
little hand in hers. 

“ I glad ’oo tame, Hilda,” said he. 

“Now then,” said Clarence, “what shall 
we do? We can’t eat lunch yet, because it’s 
too early. It’s all spread for us in the dining- 
room, but I won’t let you see it yet. I tell 
you what I’ll do, though: I’ve just got a new 
top, and I’ll let you watch me spin it.” 

Clarence brought out his top and tried to 
spin it, while the other children looked on. 
About half the time it wouldn’t spin, for he 
had not learned how to throw it with the 
proper twist. 


88 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

He fussed with it a long time, and finally; 
he said: 

“ I don’t think spinning tops is much fun. 
Let’s do something else. Say! Don’t you 
want to hear me speak my piece that I’ve 
learned for the school exhibition?” 

Nobody said anything, so Clarence stood 
up on the hall stairs and began: 

“ * Under a spreading chestnut tree. 

The village smithy stands — * 

“ Er — oh — let’s see : ‘ The village smithy 
stands.’ Er — there’s something about Mr. 
Smith — well, never mind that line. 

“ * The village smithy stands.’ 

“ Then — something or other is he 

“ ‘ With large and snowy hands ! ’ ” 

“ It’s ‘ sinewy,’ ” said Marie. 

“No, ’tisn’t; it’s ‘snowy’!” 

“‘Snowy’!” cried Marie. “How could 
he keep his hands snowy in a blacksmith’s? ” 


THE GREAT SNOW 


39 


“ I don’t care. I guess I know,” returned 
Clarence, with a sniff. “What’s ‘sinewy’? 
There ain’t any such word at all! Nov?, see 
what you’ve done! You’ve put me all out, so 
that I can’t say the rest, anyhow. I don’t 
think speaking pieces is much fun after all. 
Don’t you want to see me set up my lead 
soldiers? I’ll do it if you’ll promise not to 
break them. Ma said I must be careful how 
I let you use my things.” 

“Oh, let’s all play something together!” 
broke in Marie. “ It isn’t any fun to sit still 
and just watch you ! 3 

“Well,” said Clarence, who was rather 
surprised to hear this, “ I’ll play barber, if 
you’ll let me be the barber and cut your hair 
off with Ma’s scissors. And I’ll shave you, 
Tubby, with the bread knife.” 

But the girls didn’t want Clarence to cut 
their hair off, and Tubby was afraid of the 
bread-knife. So Marie got up a game of 
puss-in-the-corner, and after this they all slid 


40 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
downstairs about fifty times, laughing and 
shouting, until Clarence bumped his head; 
after which he thought that sliding down- 
stairs was no fun at all. But by this time the 
other three children were having such a good 
time that they paid no attention to Clarence. 
After a while, though, they began to be very 
hungry. Clarence grinned. 

“ Now I guess you’re going to be glad you 
came,” said he. “ Come into the dining- 
room and we’ll have the lunch that Ma left 
for us.” 

They all made a rush for the dining-room. 
There they found the table set for the seven 
children who had been asked. At each place 
there was a small sandwich, cut very thin, a 
glass of milk, and a lady-finger. 

“ Ain’t that fine?” asked Clarence. “ And 
we can eat up all the things that the others 
aren’t going to get. That’ll make two sand- 
wiches apiece for everybody except Tubby. 
He’s so little he don’t need much.” 


THE GREAT SNOW 


41 


“ ’Es, I do ! " said Tubby. “ I want four 
sandwiches!” And, indeed, the sandwiches 
were so small that the two girls each ate one 
almost at a bite. But because Tubby looked 
so wistful, Hilda gave him her second one, 
though she was just about as hungry after 
luncheon as she had been before. 

While they were eating they noticed how 
fast the snow was falling, and how deep it 
lay upon the ground. They could see only 
a short distance, so thick was the whirling 
snow. The wind was piling it in great drifts 
against the house. Already it nearly reached 
the lower window-pane. The whole world 
seemed to have turned to snow. 

It was a wonderful sight, and the children 
watched it for a long, long time. A hush 
fell on them, and they spoke very little. They 
felt as if they w r ere all alone, shut in by the 
white, whirling flakes that filled the air and 
covered the earth and half buried the cottage 
in their cold embrace. 


42 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


After a while they turned away from the 
window and looked at picture-books and 
played quiet games. Still the snow blew 
against the window glass, and the sleet now 
began to rattle on the roof and sides of the 
cottage. 

“ I wish Ma would come,” said Clarence. 
“ She ought to have been here long ago. And 
I can’t see any carriages or any people pass- 
ing. I can’t even see the road, the snow is so 
thick.” 

“ I’m beginning to feel awfully cold,” said 
Marie, shivering. 

“ So’m I,” said Tubby. “ What ze mat- 
ter?” 

Surely enough, the room was growing 
colder all the time. 

“ Why, the fire’s going out,” cried Clarence 
all of a sudden. The children ran from the 
sitting-room to the dining-room, and from 
there to the kitchen; but it was cold in all of 
them. The three stoves that warmed them, no 


THE GREAT SNOW 


43 


longer blazed a bright red. They were dulled 
down so that no heat came from them. Clar- 
ence took a poker and opened the doors and 
looked inside of them. 

“ Gracious! ” said he. “ They’re almost 
out. They need coal.” 

“Can we help you, Clarence ?” asked 
Hilda. 

“Well, I should think not!” returned he. 
“I’m a boy, and I don’t need to have girls 
to help me. This is my Ma’s house, and when 
she’s away it’s mine. You just stand aside 
and let me see to this.” 

There was an enormous coal-hod full of 
coal by the dining-room stove. Clarence took 
hold of its handle and gave it as big a lift 
as he could. He raised it almost two inches, 
and then let go, puffing. 

“ Ouch! ” cried he. “ That thing cuts my 
hand.” 

The other children stood around, looking 
at him silently. He felt that he must do it 


44 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


this time. So he rolled up his sleeves and got 
both hands around the handle and braced him- 
self for a tremendous lift. 

“W-o-o-o!” he cried all of a sudden; for 
after lifting the great hod quite a distance he 
had to let go all of a sudden, and, whack! 
it came down on his toes. 

“ Ow! ow! ow! ” he yelled, hobbling around 
the room. Meanwhile the fire was getting 
lower and lower, and the cold was worse and 
worse. 

“We all be f’ozen,” said Tubby, blow- 
ing his little fingers and looking very un- 
happy. 

“Come, you girls!” said Clarence. “I 
will let you help me a little. You all take 
hold and lift with me. Now — when I say 
three! up with her — one, two, three!” 

They all pulled and hauled in different di- 
rections, when bump ! they upset the hod, and 
all the coal went out on the floor. 

“Now see what you’ve done!” shouted 


THE GREAT SNOW 45 
Clarence. “ That’s what comes of letting 
girls help. The fires’ll all go out now and 
we’ll freeze to death ! And it’s getting dark, 
and we haven’t any light. Oh, why didn’t 
Ma come? Why didn’t Ma come? ” 

Marie was much frightened, too; and poor 
Tubby began to whimper. The daylight 
was really going, and the fire was nearly 
gone. 

“I’ll make things all right, Clarence,” 
said Hilda all at once. “ If you children 
promise to do just what I tell you, we’ll soon 
have a good fire and light and everything.” 

Hilda was so small that it seemed strange 
to hear her speak so confidently. The other 
children looked at her for a moment. Clar- 
ence had lost his boastfulness, and he said 
nothing. Suddenly Tubby went up to Hilda 
and nestled his hand in hers. 

“ I’ll p’omise,” said he. 

And Clarence and Marie promised. 

“ Now,” said Hilda, “ quick! We couldn’t 


46 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
ever lift a big hod of coal; but let’s each of 
us pick up pieces of coal and drop them into 
the stoves. All of us now!” 

They went at the coal like birds picking up 
big black seeds, and soon they had put a little 
pile on each fire — not too much at first, Hilda 
said. And she knew how to open the 
draughts so as to make the dying fire light 
the fresh coal. She bustled about, looking 
at one stove and then another, and before 
very long a dull red glow began to shine in 
the dark stoves, and the cracking and snap- 
ping of the fresh coal was heard as it kindled 
and blazed. 

“ Hurray!” cried all the children as they 
felt the heat. But Clarence said rather sul- 
lenly: 

“Pooh! That was easy enough.” 

“ Now we must try to light the gas,” said 
Hilda. “ It’s getting so dark. Where are 
the matches, Clarence?” 

“ Oh, my Ma says that children musn’t 


THE GREAT SNOW 47 
play with matches! You’ll set the house on 
fire.” 

“ I’m not going to play with them,” said 
Hilda. “ I’m going to use them. Ah, there 
they are!”. 

She found three matches, and then began 
to wonder how she could get at the gas jets. 
They were hung from the middle of the ceil- 
ing in each room, far above Hilda’s head. The 
children looked on to see what she would do. 

“ Help me push a chair,” said Hilda. 

She pushed it up by the dining-room table, 
climbed on the chair, and from the chair upon 
the table. There, standing on her tip-toes, 
she could just reach the gas jets. She 
scratched a match and turned on the gas, 
touching the tips with the fire in her hand. 

Pouf-f ! A brilliant light flooded the dark 
room. 

“Hurray! Hurray!” again cried all the 
children. 

Hilda could not reach the gas in the sit- 


48 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
ting-room, for there was no table beneath it 
to stand on. So she lighted the kitchen lights, 
and the whole place looked cheery and warm. 

“ But, Hilda,” said Tubby, “ my tummock 
is all hollow.” All the children, indeed, were 
as hungry as a pack of wolves. 

“Well,” said Hilda, “there must be some 
food in the house.” She was the hungriest of 
them all, for she had given up her extra lunch 
to Tubby. She went about the kitchen, open- 
ing the pantry doors and peering into the 
closets. 

“Here’s dinner!” she cried at last. She 
had found a fine cold roast leg of lamb on a 
platter. 

“Hilda!” said Clarence, who was quite 
aghast. “ You mustn’t touch that lamb. My 
Ma wouldn’t want you to.” 

“ She wouldn’t want us all to starve! ” said 
Hilda sturdily. “ As for your old lamb, my 
papa will give you a whole flock of lambs. 
Come on, children!” 


THE GREAT SNOW 49 

She set out the roast lamb on the table. 
Then she found some bread and butter, and a 
slab of jelly cake, and half a mince pie, a 
pitcher of milk, and finally a whole jar of 
strawberry jam. It was like a splendid picnic 
on a winter’s night. 

When Tubby saw all these good things 
come out of the pantry he could hardly show 
his joy. His face shone like the sun, and he 
threw himself all over Hilda’s neck. 

“ Hilda,” he said at last, in almost solemn 
tones ; “ Hilda — you’re — you’re — bully ! " 

All the children ate like heroes. Hilda 
sawed off great chunks of the cold lamb with 
a knife the best way she could. The bread 
was chopped up into pieces and smeared with 
jam. The pie and the cake and the milk were 
all finished. Everybody had enough. Even 
Clarence forgot to grumble, for after the 
eating once began, he ate as much as any of 
them. When they had finished they were so 
comfortable, and the room was so warm, and 


50 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
they had had such an exciting time, then they 
all grew very drowsy. Tubby’s eyes were 
closing even as he finished, and everyone there 
was heavy with sleep. 

And outside the snow still fell and the wind 
blew. 

Hilda’s father was smoking by the fire in 
his Den that evening after dinner when a tre- 
mendous scraping and stamping was heard 
outside, followed by steps on the verandah. 
Then doors opened, and a heavy, lumber- 
ing sound echoed in the hall. A minute later 
Aunt Maria burst into his room, covered 
with snow from head to foot, and panting 
and gulping in a most extraordinary manner. 

“ Good gracious ! What’s the matter. 
Aunt Maria? I didn’t expect you on such a 
night as this.” 

“ Oh! ” wailed Aunt Maria. “ I left him 
— and now he’s freezing in the dark! 
O-o-o!” 


THE GREAT SNOW 51 
“What? Who’s freezing in the dark?” 
“Clarence! my Clarence!” cried Aunt 
Maria, with a fresh burst of tears. The snow 
from her clothes was melting into a large 
puddle in the middle of the rug on which she 
stood. 

“Why,” said Hilda’s father, “what’s hap- 
pened to Clarence? Isn’t he safe at home? ” 
“At home? Yes! but that’s where he’s 
freezing in the dark! Oh! I shall find his 
little form all cold — he was so beautiful! ” 
“Tell me! I don’t understand,” said 
Hilda’s father, beginning now for the first 
time to look anxious. “ Where did you come 
from — and where is Hilda?” 

“ O-o-o, don’t ask me! I — I — just went 
to the city to do some shopping, and then the 
snow came, and when the train got as far as 
here, it couldn’t go any further. So I had to 
stop, and the snow-plough made a road from 
the station to your house, and here I am — and 
oh, my Clarence — he is frozen in the dark! ” 


52 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“But, of course,” said Hilda’s father, 
“you left a maid with the children, or some 
grown person?” 

“ N-o-o-o! I — I — let the maid go, too. I 
thought I should be back early. And so by 
this time there’s no fire in the house, and it’s 
all dark, and — Clarence is freezing!” 

Hilda’s father jumped up like a shot. 

“ What ! " he asked. “ You left those chil- 
dren all alone? Wait here! ” 

He ran hastily downstairs and spoke a few 
quick, sharp words to the men at the door. 
Then he hurried back to his own room. In 
two minutes he came through the Den wear- 
ing huge jack-hoots, a long fur coat, and 
with a fur cap on his head. 

“ Be ready to come with me at once,” he 
said to Aunt Maria. 

“ But it’s no use,” she snuffled. “ The men 
said their horses couldn’t pull the snow- 
plough any further.” 

“ Then we’ll get a whole regiment of 


THE GREAT SNOW 53 
horses ! ” returned he, and was downstairs 
again in a jiffy. 

Then Aunt Maria heard men shouting and 
the blowing of a horn, and through the win- 
dows she saw lights flash out in the whirl- 
ing snow. In ten minutes her name was 
called, and she went down into the hall. The 
door was wide open, though already a whole 
snowbank had blown in. But there was 
Hilda’s father. 

“ Come ! ” he said, and guided her by the 
arm out into the darkness. 

She saw six big horses harnessed to a snow- 
plough, with two men to manage it. Behind 
the snow-plough was a closed carriage. 

“ Get in,” said Hilda’s father. “ We must 
reach those children in time to save them, if 
we can.” 

Cr-r-unch! went the snow-plough as the 
horses stamped and tugged among the drifts. 
Behind, in the closed carriage, Aunt Maria 
was muffled up in rugs. Hilda’s father was 


54 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
beside her, but he did not speak a word. 
Cr-r-runch! On they went, sometimes very 
slowly, where the snow had drifted thick; 
sometimes faster, where the wind had blown 
the road all hare. But on, on, on — good 
horses and willing men. 

After nearly an hour had passed Aunt 
Maria suddenly gave a cry. 

“Oh!” she said. “There is the hill that 
overlooks my house. When we reach the top 
we can see it. Oh! I don’t dare look. I know 

it is all black and cold and my Clarence 

Oh! oh!” 

Slowly up the hill toiled the great snow- 
plough. After it and in its white, frosty 
track, followed the carriage. 

“Are we at the top yet?” gasped Aunt 
Maria. “ Are we? Are we? I can not bear 
to look upon the house. It is the tomb of 
Clarence ! ” 

The carriage bumped as it reached the top. 
Aunt Maria in spite of her grief pressed her 


THE GREAT SNOW 55 
face against the carriage window. So did 
Hilda’s father. 

The snow flew wild as ever. The night 
was black as ink. But down at the foot of 
the hill where the cottage lay, a long shaft of 
warm, bright light streamed out into the 
darkness. The men on the snow-plough gave 
a great shout, and so did Hilda’s father. 
Aunt Maria fainted dead away. 

But she was up in a moment. 

“See!” she cried. “See! I was a fool- 
ish woman to be afraid. Ought I not to have 
known that Clarence could take care of 
everything? He is so bright; he has such a 
mind! You never quite felt it, I’m afraid; 
but now you see what that boy can do. And 
all by himself, too! ” 

They reached the cottage and the six great 
horses stopped. Hilda’s father threw the car- 
riage door open and plunged into the snow 
as if he were diving. Aunt Maria followed 
through the sort of tunnel that he made. 


56 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
In a few moments they had rushed in at the 
front door, bringing with them a shower of 
snow. 

Everything was still. Not a sound was 
heard except the ticking of a clock. But the 
stoves were aglow; the gas was burning 
brightly in the dining-room. On the table 
was a heap of dishes, knives, forks, spoons, 
crusts of bread, a pie-plate, a jam-pot, and 
in the middle, all that was left of a leg of 
roast lamb, which looked as though Indians 
had been hacking it with their tomahawks. 

“ Well, I never! ” said Aunt Maria. “ Such 
disorder! ” 

“ That’s the best thing I’ve seen yet,” said 
Hilda’s father, laughing. “ Let’s look for 
them upstairs.” 

Both went up and lighted the gas in the 
hall. 

“ Look here,” said Hilda’s father, swing- 
ing a door open. 

It was Aunt Maria’s own room. On her 







V?*: • . 


In the Snow 



■ 















♦ 

i 






















57 


THE GREAT SNOW 
wide white pillows lay three childish heads 
that peeped out from under a big quilt. 
Hilda and Marie and Tubby were fast asleep. 
But as she looked at them, Aunt Maria gave 
a piercing shriek. 

“ I knew it! I knew it! See! Something 
dreadful has happened to him! The child. 
Tubby, is covered with blood. He has been 
gashed across the face. Oh, help!” 

Aunt Maria made such an outcry that the 
three children slowly wakened, among them 
Tubby. His eyes blinked at the lights, and 
then at Aunt Maria, who still kept wringing 
her hands. Then he opened his mouth and 
said very seriously, but with the faint dawn- 
ing of a satisfied grin: 

“ ’Taint blood. It’s ’trawberry jam.” 

“ But where,” cried Aunt Maria, “ is my 
Clarence, who has protected you and saved 
your lives? Where is he? ” 

There was a sort of stumbling sound in 
the hall, and Clarence, still only half awake, 


58 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
rolled in. Aunt Maria looked at him with 
pride and triumph. 

“Now,” she said, “children, speak up. 
Who kept the fires going so that you wouldn’t 
freeze? ” 

The other children — even Clarence — an- 
swered all together: 

“Hilda!” 

“What? But who lighted the gas for 
you?” 

“ Hilda!” 

“ And the food you had — who got that for 
you? ” 

“Hilda! Hilda!” cried they all; and 
Tubby added, “And the ’trawberry jam.” 

Hilda’s father turned with his arms 
stretched out to her, and she leaped into them 
and put her own arms tight around his neck. 


Ill 

HILDA AND THE ELF, 

H ILDA was sitting on the grass 
under a big tree. It was a favour- 
ite nook of hers, down at the end 
of the long meadow where the clover-blossoms 
swayed in the wind. She often went there 
all by herself in the afternoon, with her doll 
for company. Hilda liked to be alone some- 
times, because she had thoughts and fancies 
that no one else ever seemed quite to under- 
stand; and so she kept them to herself and 
dreamed over them under the big tree at the 
end of the meadow. 

It was the last week of September, and in 
a day or two Hilda was to be sent to school 
for the first time in her life. She didn’t ex- 
actly know what school was like or whether 
she was going to be pleased with it or not. 
She was six years old, and she thought that 

59 


60 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
she knew enough already without going to 
any school. She could read through “ Mother 
Goose ” without making a single mistake, for 
she knew it all by heart; and if you just 
showed her one of the pictures she could say 
the rhymes off fast. And she could tell the 
stories out of a good many other books, such 
as “ The White Cat ” and “ Puss in Boots ” 
and “ Aladdin,” besides a good many more 
which her father had told her; and she could 
count as far as thirty, and give the names of 
the numbers up to ten when she saw them, 
except that she sometimes got 6 mixed with 
9, because they looked so much alike — only 
the curly parts were in diff erent places. She 
could even tell time by the big clock at the 
foot of the staircase — that is, she knew the 
hours. So, as she thought it all over by her- 
self under the big tree, it did seem rather 
silly to send her to school. She had already 
learned as much as she needed to know or 
wanted to know, and so 


HILDA AND THE ELF 61 

What was that noise? 

Hilda stopped thinking of school and be- 
gan to look about her. She had surely heard 
something strange, and quite near by. As 
she listened, there came to her ears a sound 
like a long hiss, and then a curious little gasp- 
ing and puffing, as though somebody was 
very much out of breath. It was all very 
faint, and she only heard it because her ears 
were so near the ground. Yet she could see 
nothing. The grass between her and the 
stone wall was quite long ; and even when she 
sat up it was as high as her head. So she 
scrambled to her feet and looked in the direc- 
tion of the sounds. Then she saw a strange 
sight. 

Down at one corner of the wall was a big 
black spider. Hilda did not like spiders, and 
she used to dream awful dreams about them. 
She did not often dream at all ; but somehow 
or other she always dreamed on Thanksgiv- 
ing night and on the night after Christmas, 


62 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
and it was generally about spiders. But she 
had never dreamed of a spider so big and 
black and fat and horrid as this spider which 
she now saw near the wall. And he was not 
spinning webs or doing any useful things. 
He was standing up on his hind claws and 
striking out with his front claws, while he 
made a hissing noise that sounded like a 
snake’s. 

The next moment Hilda saw what it all 
meant. Close to the wall, and with his back 
against it, was a tiny little creature only a 
few inches high. He was dressed in some 
kind of fine silken material that gleamed and 
glittered like spun gold, and in his hand he 
held what looked like a small, sharp needle, 
but which Hilda saw was a sword. With 
this he was slashing and lunging at the great 
spider with all his might. The spider was 
afraid to come too near, lest its claws should 
be pierced by the sharp sword; but it kept 
the long, hairy nippers moving, and it hissed 


HILDA AND THE ELF, 63 
and hissed and hissed. The little creature 
who was defending himself was very pale, 
and every time the spider hissed, his face grew 
paler still, and he gasped and swayed as 
though he were going to fall. Hilda saw that 
he could not hold out much longer. 

“Well!” said she. “I’ll just make that 
spider stop.” 

She looked about and saw a large stone. 
It was all she could do to lift it, but she 
hoisted it up in her two little hands. Then she 
took a step or two, and, standing just behind 
the spider, she held the stone directly over 
him. The spider did not notice her. He was 
puffing himself up for a final hiss. Slowly 
and savagely he rose on his powerful hind 
claws. His fore-claws, big and black, were 
raised in the air. In two seconds he would 
have hissed and sprung, when — crash! smash! 
Down came the great big stone, and the 
spider was all in pieces. 

“ There ! ” said Hilda. “ Take that ! ” 


64 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

She looked at the little creature who had 
been fighting the spider. He was leaning 
against the wall, and his face was as white 
as paper. When he saw the spider smashed, 
he let his sword fall from his hand, and it 
went tinkling down among the stones. But 
in a minute or two his colour came back to 
him, his eyes grew bright, and he stood up 
straight and looked into Hilda’s face. 

“You have saved my life,” said he. 

His voice was such a little bit of a voice 
that Hilda had to lean down to hear it; but 
it sounded sweet and clear like a silver harp. 
Hilda didn’t know what to say. 

“ Yes,” he went on, “ you have saved my 
life. Who are you, little girl?” 

“Oh!” she said, “I’m Hilda.” 

“Hilda? That’s a very pretty name. I 
owe you a great deal, Hilda.” 

“ Oh, no,” said Hilda simply. “ I don’t 
like spiders.” 

“ Neither do I,” remarked he, picking up 


HILDA AND THE ELF 65 
his sword and wiping it on a clover-leaf. 
“ Don’t you want to know who I am? ” 

“Yes,” said Hilda; “only I thought it 
wouldn’t be polite to ask.” 

“ Well, I’ll tell you,” returned he, smiling. 
“ I’m an Elf, and I have the power of all the 
elves. You know elves are almost the same 
as fairies.” 

“ Are they? ” asked Hilda. 

“ Yes,” replied the Elf ; “ only people don’t 
see us very often. But I am an Elf.” 

“You do look like one,” admitted Hilda 
thoughtfully. 

“ Yes,” said he, “ and I have magic power. 
I am going to give you some of it because 
you killed the spider. How would you like to 
be able to wish for anything you want and 
have it come true? ” 

“ Of course, I should like it,” said Hilda. 
“ But if you have magic power, why didn’t 
you just wish for the spider to be dead. He 
would have killed you in another minute.” 


66 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“Ah,” replied the Elf, shaking his head 
ruefully, “spiders are the born enemies of 
elves, and they are the one thing over which 
we have no power. If we meet them we have 
to fight with them, and their breath is poison- 
ous to us. That is why we are not so power- 
ful as the fairies. But I can make you a 
gift of five magic wishes, and I’m going to do 
so. Listen. After you wake up to-morrow 
morning you will be able to wish five times, 
each time for anything you want, and your 
wish will be answered as soon as you make 
it. But I advise you not to use up your 
wishes on foolish things, such as most chil- 
dren want, but to keep them all till you are a 
great deal older, or until you really and truly 
need them.” 

“ But how am I going to make the wishes 
so that they will be answered? ” asked Hilda, 
who was beginning to be a good deal ex- 
cited. 

“ I’ll tell you,” said the Elf. “ When you 


HILDA AND THE ELF 67 
have decided that you really do need any- 
thing, go off somewhere all by yourself, and 
say aloud just what it is that you wish for. 
Then say over these words: 

“Little elf, little elf. 

Come to me your ownty self. 

Make my spoken wish come true 
As you said that you would do. 

“ Then you will have a sign that your wish 
is heard and answered. But be a wise little 
girl and don’t waste your wishes on trifles.” 

“ I won’t,” said Hilda. “ But I wish you 
could make me quite understand that it is 
all so.” 

“Well, ask me to do something to make 
you sure. Try and see whether I am really an 
Elf and have magic power. Think of some 
proof.” 

“ Oh,” said Hilda, looking around and not 
knowing just what to say. “ Well — er — 
well, suppose you turn all the green grass in 
this meadow bright blue.” 


68 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ I will,” replied the Elf ; “ and then you 
will believe? ” 

“Yes; but do it now.” 

“ Pretty soon,” said the Elf. 

Hilda had been looking at the meadow to 
see whether it was turning bright blue. But 
it stayed just as green as ever. 

“Why don’t you do it?” asked Hilda, 
facing about. 

But the Elf had disappeared. 

“Pooh!” thought Hilda, as she walked 
slowly back to the house for dinner. “ I 
don’t believe it, after all. Maybe I dreamed 
the whole thing.” 

But when she reached the house she 
thought that she would ask her mother about 
it. She didn’t tell what had happened, be- 
cause she was afraid that her mother might 
laugh; but after sitting beside her for a little 
while on the verandah steps, she asked: 

“ Mamma, are there any real fairies in the 
world? ” 


HILDA AND THE ELF 69 


“ Oh, no! ” said her mother, smiling. But 
then she suddenly thought of what had hap- 
pened at Hilda’s christening, and so she 
added: “That is, I don’t quite think there 
are, but I’m not really sure.” 

“ Well, are there any elves? ” asked Hilda. 

“ Dear me, no. There aren’t any elves ex- 
cept in picture-books.” 

“ But,” said Hilda, “ if there are perhaps- 
fairies, why aren’t there some perhaps- 
elves ? ” 

Hilda’s mother did not know just how to 
answer this. Finally, she said: 

“Well, Hilda, I never heard of anybody 
seeing an Elf.” 

“ But if I really saw an Elf, then there 
would be elves?” 

“ Why, of course, dear. Only you’d bet- 
ter wait until you see one before you puzzle 
your small head about them.” 

Hilda said nothing more; but after she 
had gone to bed that night she thought about 


70 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
it all for a long while until she fell fast 
asleep. 

But the next morning when she woke she 
was quite sure that the Elf and the Wishes 
were all a dream. After she had been 
dressed, she went down to breakfast. Her 
mother was there, but her father had gone 
out for an early walk and had not yet re- 
turned. Breakfast was nearly over when all 
of a sudden he came rushing into the dining- 
room with his hat on his head and his stick 
in his hand. 

“ Here is a most astonishing thing! ” cried 
he. “Wonderful! I can’t explain it ! Every 
blade of grass in the Long Meadow has 
turned a bright sky-blue! Briggs saw it 
first and ran out to tell me; and there are 
hundreds of people down there looking at 
it. I never heard of such a thing before! 
Professor Hoot, who is visiting at the Rec- 
tory, says that it is due to the peculiar chem- 
ical composition of the soil. He is going to 


HILDA AND THE ELF 71 
analyse some of the earth and write a paper 
about it. But the most curious fact is this: 
every blade of grass in that one particular 
meadow is bright blue, but not one single 
blade of grass in the next meadow has been 
changed at all. It is marvellous ! ” 

He went on talking excitedly and walking 
up and down the room. It was a long while 
before he could be got to sit down and eat 
his breakfast, and soon after he went off to 
talk with Professor Hoot. But Hilda said 
nothing. She only smiled to herself and 
knew in her heart that she had not been 
dreaming the day before, but that the five 
magic Wishes were really hers. 


IV 


THE FIRST WISH 

O N the next Monday Hilda was sent 
to school. She was small for her 
age; and so Miss Morris, the prin- 
cipal, put her in the kindergarten. There 
she found a number of girls whom she al- 
ready knew; and she began to think that she 
would like it. Everything was different 
from what she had supposed a school would 
be. No one had to study any books; but 
some of the girls were building block-houses, 
and others were stringing beads, and others 
were putting little coloured pegs into holes. 
Some very small children were standing in 
a circle and singing a song like this: 

“ The rat takes the cheese, 

The rat takes the cheese, 

Heigh-O, the Jerry-O, 

The rat takes the cheese 1 ” 

72 


THE FIRST WISH 73 

Then they would all go down on their 
hands and knees and squeak and pretend to 
nibble something. This was to teach them 
what rats are, and that cheese can he eaten. 
They would never have learned those things 
at home, and so their mothers had sent them 
to the kindergarten to be educated thor- 
oughly. 

Hilda was not set to stringing beads or 
playing rat; but the kindergarten teacher, 
Miss McFadd, took her over to a corner 
where five or six girls were sitting. 

“ Here, Hilda,” said Miss McFadd, “ are 
all kinds of splints and strips of different 
colours which can be woven into pretty little 
baskets. Just watch how the others do them 
and try to make a very simple basket your- 
self. I will see what you have done at 
noon-time.” 

So she went away and left Hilda with the 
other girls. Now, Hilda did not know any 
of them to speak to; but one of them she had 


74 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
heard about and was sorry to see her there. 
This was a tall, lank, unpleasant-looking girl 
named Frieda. She was nearly two years 
older than Hilda, but because she was lazy 
and dull she was still in the kindergarten. 
She could not learn things quickly herself, 
but she was as malicious and full of tricks 
as a monkey; and she always tried to tease 
the new children who had just come to the 
school. Being older than the rest of the girls, 
she was a sort of leader among them; and 
though they did not like her very well, they 
were afraid of her sharp tongue and of the 
tricks she might play on them if they did not 
do what she wanted. 

No sooner had Hilda sat down than 
Frieda began to mock her. If Hilda picked 
up a piece of coloured plaiting Frieda 
picked up one just like it. If Hilda put one 
down, Frieda did the same. If Hilda moved 
her chair, Frieda moved hers. If Hilda 
stopped and did nothing, Frieda stopped too. 


THE FIRST WISH 


75 


If Hilda coughed, Frieda coughed. In fact, 
she kept mimicking Hilda until the poor 
child didn’t know what to do. The worst of 
it was that the other children, instead of 
going on with their work, all stopped doing 
anything, and watched Frieda. When at 
last she had made Hilda very unhappy, they 
giggled and whispered to each other, until 
Hilda was ready to cry with shame. 

“Huh!” said Frieda to the girl who sat 
beside her. “We don’t want any cry-babies 
here, do we? They ought to be in their little 
cribs at home in the nursery.” 

“ I’m not a cry-baby! ” said Hilda, trying 
to keep the tears back. 

“Cry-baby! Cry-baby!” called Frieda, 
and then she pretended to cry herself, and 
wipe her eyes with her handkerchief ; after 
which she thrust her face forward and stuck 
out her tongue. She looked exactly like an 
ape. 

Just at this moment Miss McFadd came 


76 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
up. All the children became very quiet and 
began to work busily on their baskets. Only 
Hilda sat idle. She was trying not to cry. 

“ Children, it is noon,” said Miss McFadd. 
“ You may go down stairs for your luncheon. 
How have you got on with your basket, 
Hilda? ” 

Hilda did not know what to say. 

“ Oh, Miss McFadd! ” said Frieda. “ She 
hasn’t done anything at all.” 

“How is this?” asked Miss McFadd 
sharply. “ Haven’t you even tried to do 
your basket? The other girls were to show 
you how.” 

“Oh, Miss McFadd!” broke in Frieda, 
“We did show her how, but she wouldn’t try 
at all.” 

Miss McFadd looked at Hilda very se- 
verely. She ought to have shown Hilda her- 
self how to make the basket; only she had 
forgotten all about it. She knew this, but it 
only made her more cross with Hilda. 


THE FIRST WISH 77 
“ I am sorry,” she said, “ that you are so 
obstinate as not to try. I shall have to pun- 
ish you by leaving you here alone while the 
other children have their luncheon. You can 
have something to eat, but you must stay 
here until you have at least begun your bas- 
ket. I am afraid that you are a very sulky 
little girl.” 

Hilda wanted to tell Miss McFadd all 
about everything and how Frieda had 
treated her, and how the others had not once 
offered to show her about the basket. But 
she hated to tell tales, because she had been 
taught that it was mean. So she did not say 
a word, but just sat still. Miss McFadd 
looked at her a moment and then went away. 

“There, cry-baby!” said Frieda, as she 
got up to go with the rest. “ Now, you’ll 
have a nice time all by yourself! You’re too 
stupid to make a basket! Stupid! Stupid! ” 
Then she stuck out her tongue again and 
went away. 


78 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


Hilda was in despair. She felt that she 
had been disgraced before all the children on 
the very first day of her school. She hadn’t 
supposed that anyone could be so hateful as 
Frieda was; and Miss McFadd seemed to be 
against her, too. School had seemed so 
pleasant to her, and now it was all spoilt at 
the very outset. And she knew that she 
couldn’t even begin to make a basket. As 
soon as the maid had brought her a tray with 
her luncheon on it and left her quite alone, 
Hilda broke down and began to sob. She 
had never felt so unhappy in all her life. 

She sobbed and sobbed, and her tears fell 
down upon the plaits that were in her lap. If 
she could only weave them into a fine basket 
and make Frieda stop tormenting her ! Sud- 
denly she remembered the Elf and the wishes 
that he had given her. But was it really true 
that she could wish things? Anyhow she 
could try. She had almost forgotten the 
rhyme which the Elf had taught her, but she 


THE FIRST WISH 79 
slowly recalled the words. Then she said 
aloud: 

I wish for a most beautiful basket. 

“ Little elf, little elf, 

Come to me your ownty self. 

Make my spoken wish come true 
As you said that you would do.” 

Ting! A sound like a little silver bell was 
heard in the room behind her, and then of a 
sudden all the coloured strips in her lap and 
on the floor at her feet seemed to slide to- 
gether; and before Hilda knew what was 
happening, a lovely basket stood beside her. 
It was cunningly woven in the shape of a 
Grecian vase, and the colours were blended 
so beautifully that the whole looked like a 
great flower. Hilda clapped her hands with 
joy and her eyes sparkled. 

“ Wonderful! ” cried she. 

Then, after looking at the basket for a 
while, she ate her luncheon most contentedly. 

At the end of the hour the children all 


80 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
came trooping upstairs again. Frieda rushed 
over to where Hilda sat. She wanted to 
begin tormenting her again. 

“ Well, cry-baby,” she said. “ How did 
you like being punished? I suppose you’ve 
been making a fine basket.” 

“ Yes, I have,” said Hilda. 

“Ho, ho!” jeered Frieda. “Yes, a lot 
you have! Let’s see it.” 

“ Here it is,” said Hilda. 

Frieda looked and her eyes got as big as 
saucers and her mouth opened with astonish- 
ment! She fairly gasped and hadn’t a word 
to say. Just then Miss McFadd came up. 

“Well, Hilda,” said she, very severely, 

“have you begun your Oh! ” And she, 

too, gasped. 

“ Why,” she cried, “ that’s the most beauti- 
ful basket that was ever made in this school. 
I didn’t know that you had learned how to 
make baskets. Well, then, I’ll put you at 
something else in another part of the room.” 


THE FIRST WISH 


81 


So Hilda was taken away from Frieda and 
set to counting blue buttons. The children 
with whom she was now put were nice chil- 
dren, so that when Hilda went home that 
night she was as gay as a lark. 

But that night she was troubled because 
she remembered how the Elf had told her 
not to use up her Wishes on little things. She 
was afraid she had been foolish to waste the 
first Wish on a basket; yet, anyhow, she had 
put an end to her unhappiness. And the 
following days at school were so pleasant and 
she had such fun and so many things to think 
about that she nearly forgot the Wishes 
altogether. 


V 


THE SECOND WISH 

T HE months went by, and winter 
came. It was almost Christmas 
time. Hilda’s father had gone away 
upon business, but he was to return on 
Christmas Eve so as to be home for the 
Christmas tree and to see Hilda hang up her 
stockings, one on each side of the fireplace 
in her room. The snow lay deep on the 
ground, and everyone began to feel like 
Christmas. Hilda helped dress the house 
with sprays of pine and hemlock and to put 
bits of mistletoe among the evergreen which 
almost covered the cluster of electric globes 
that hung overhead. 

It was only three days before Christmas 
Day, when Hilda’s mother suddenly fell ill. 

At first she thought it was nothing more than 
82 


THE SECOND WISH 83 
a cold; but before evening she was so much 
worse that she had to send for a doctor. The 
regular doctor was away, so a different doc- 
tor came in his place. He was a very young 
doctor and so he knew a great deal; for it is 
a curious thing that the younger a doctor is, 
the more he knows. Indeed, there is nobody 
who knows more than a young doctor, except 
a medical student, and this, I suppose, is 
because a medical student is younger still. 

Now, this doctor did not like Hilda. He 
did not know what to say to children, and so 
he always puffed himself up and used long 
words. He had an idea that Hilda was 
laughing at him when he did this. It wasn’t 
so, for Hilda was only puzzled by him; yet 
he thought it was so, and therefore when he 
came into the house and saw her in the hall, 
he looked fidgetty. 

“Well, little girl,” said he, “I am in- 
formed that your mother is suffering from 
indisposition. From such intelligence as I 


84 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
was able to gather from the conversation of 
the domestic who was dispatched to summon 
me, I am inclined to diagnose the complaint 
as pulmonary in its nature.” 

Hilda didn’t like to have the Doctor call 
her “ little girl ” when he knew her name per- 
fectly well. She didn’t know why she didn’t 
like it, but she just didn’t. She had under- 
stood scarcely a word of what he had said, 
and so she did not answer, but tried to smile 
out of politeness. 

The Doctor thought she was smiling at 
him. So he scowled at her and glared and 
went upstairs. Hilda wondered why he was 
so cross. 

When he came down, she looked at him 
timidly and asked: 

“ Will you please tell me how mamma is? ” 

The Doctor wagged his head at her 
pompously. 

“ Your intelligence is still too immature to 
allow you to comprehend my diagnosis. The 


iTHE SECOND WISH 85 
case, however, is one of idiopathic pneumonia, 
and has already reached the stage of hepati- 
sation.” 

Poor Hilda did not understand a word of 
this, but she felt that it meant something very 
bad. 

“ Is she very sick? ” she asked, after a mo- 
ment’s pause. 

The Doctor snarled. 

“ Indubitably,” said he. “ Have you no 
intelligence whatever? Or are you an in- 
stance of arrested development? Only an 
idiot child could fail to understand plain 
English.” 

Hilda knew what this meant and she was 
vexed. 

“ It isn’t plain English! ” said she, getting 
red in the face; for she didn’t like to be called 
an idiot child. “ I never heard anybody talk 
the way you talk.” 

The Doctor was furious. For once, he 
forgot to use long words. 


86 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ How dare you be so saucy!” cried he. 
“ You are a bundle of impudence! Get out 
of my way and let me pass ! ” 

And he went out, banging the door as he 
shut it. Hilda was so frightened by his anger 
that she sat on the stairs a long time and 
then went straight up to her mother’s room. 
She forgot all about Christmas and felt only 
a sinking at her heart because her mother was 
so ill. 

The room was darkened, so that Hilda 
could scarcely see anything as she went in. 
But very soon she could make out her 
mother’s face lying upon the pillow. In a 
chair beside her was a nurse who had just 
come. She had a white cap on her head and 
a sort of white uniform with cuffs and a 
neat collar. Hilda thought she looked very 
nice. When she saw Hilda, she got up from 
her chair so that Hilda could sit there. But 
Hilda stood by the bed and put her face 
down on the pillow beside her mother’s. 


THE SECOND WISH 87 

“Mamma, mamma,” she asked pitifully; 
“ are you very sick? ” 

“Yes, dear, I’m afraid I am,” said her 
mother almost in a whisper. “Dr. Sniff en 
says it is very serious. He thought it better 
to tell me.” 

Hilda somehow felt as though the Doctor 
were to blame. 

“ I don’t believe he knows,” she said after 
a minute. 

“Sh-h! You shouldn’t speak like that. 
Why do you say that he doesn’t know? ” 

“ Oh, why — I don’t like him. He was 
cross to me, just now.” 

“Was he? Then you must have provoked 
him in some way. He has done everything 
he can at present, and he is going to telegraph 
for papa — only I am afraid the telegram 
won’t reach him, because he must already be 
on the way home. It will be a dull Christmas 
for you, dear, I’m afraid. I shall not be able 
to see about your tree.” 


88 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ Oh, I don’t care anything about my 
tree,” cried Hilda. “ If you will only get 
well, that is all I want.” 

But the nurse came up just then and said 
that the Doctor had left orders that there was 
to be very little talking. So Hilda sat down 
in one corner of the room for a long time, 
very sorrowful; and then the nurse sent her 
downstairs. She got her dolls and tried to 
play with them, but somehow she could not 
amuse herself in that way; for she felt all 
the time as though something dreadful was 
going to happen. The house was very still 
and she was very lonely and afraid. If only 
her papa would come home ! It would make 
her feel more courageous just to hear his 
voice and have him take her up in his strong 
arms. 

“He’s better than that old Doctor!” said 
Hilda to herself as she sat by the open fire 
in the hall and saw pictures in the flames. 

Later in the afternoon she crept up to the 


THE SECOND WISH 89 
sick room and looked in; but the nurse mo- 
tioned her to go away, for her mother was 
half asleep. So she went back once more and 
sat very quietly until it began to grow dark. 
Just then the bell rang and one of the maids 
opened the door. The Doctor came in. 

“Ugh!” he said to himself. “It’s posi- 
tively hyperborean this evening. Ha! A 
fire!” 

He saw the glow of the wood-embers as 
they shone in the twilight. But he didn’t see 
Hilda, who was crouching on a footstool 
very still beside the hearth; so that when he 
went up to the fireplace to warm his hands 
he stumbled over her and nearly fell. 

“What’s that?” he snapped. “What 
d’you mean by tripping me up? Oh, it’s 
you, is it? I believe it was premeditated! ” 

“ I don’t know what you mean,” said 
Hilda. “ Only I didn’t do anything. I was 
just sitting still. But you walked on my 
foot.” 


90 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ No impudence! ” said the Doctor. “ Go 
at once and tell the maid to turn on the in- 
candescents! ” 

“ I don’t think she’s got any,” returned 
Hilda doubtfully. 

“ Any what? ” 

“ Any of those — those incan — those things 
you said.” 

“You surely are the most stupid child I 
ever saw,” said the Doctor, with a snarl. 
“ What do you do here when it’s dark? ” 

“We turn on the lights,” answered Hilda. 

And just then the maid came in and did it. 

The Doctor looked at Hilda for a minute 
as though he could eat her up. 

“ So you think to ridicule me, do you? ” 
said he. “ I wish you were my child for 
about an hour ! ” 

“Z don’t,” said Hilda; for she was begin- 
ning to be angry. 

But the Doctor had gone upstairs. 

He stayed there a long, long time, — more 


THE SECOND WISH 


91 


than an hour; and while he was away, Hilda 
had her dinner. After she had finished she 
sat by the fire in the hall again. At last she 
heard a door open overhead. The Doctor was 
saying something. When he had finished, 
there was a sound like a sob, and then the 
door was shut and the Doctor came down- 
stairs. 

Now, the Doctor was not a bad man, but he 
thought so much about himself that he did 
not have time to think of anybody else. He 
really believed that Hilda was always trying 
to make fun of him, and he had an uneasy 
feeling that perhaps he was not so wonderful 
as he hoped he was. So when he saw the 
child waiting for him, his anger toward her 
came back to him, and he said a cruel thing, 
though perhaps he did not mean to be cruel. 

“Well, little girl,” he said very solemnly, 
“ I hope that you will leave off your imperti- 
nent ways now, for your mother is probably 
not going to recover. She is very ill, very ill 


92 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
indeed; and you ought to be thinking of your 
great misfortune, rather than planning new 
manifestations of your most unhappy dispo- 
sition. At such a time as this ” 

“Isn’t mamma going to get well?” cried 
Hilda. 

“I think not. She ” 

“ Oh! oh! ” Hilda burst into tears. Her 
sobs shook her little body like a leaf. The 
Doctor was very much disturbed, but he didn’t 
know what to do; so, instead of feeling sorry, 
he was only the more vexed. 

Just then the clock in the hall struck eight. 
Each stroke was like a clear sweet bell. The 
sound made Hilda start. It reminded her of 
the silvery little ting which she had heard 
when her Wish was granted. A great joy 
came into her heart. She remembered the 
Elf and the four Wishes that she still had 
left. She stopped crying and put her little 
hands behind her back and looked up at the 
Doctor with a look of defiance. 


THE SECOND WISH 


03 


“My mamma is going to get well!” she 
said. “ She will be well to-morrow morn- 
ing!” 

“What do you mean?” cried the Doctor. 
“ Are you crazy? ” 

“ She is going to get well. You don’t 
know! ” 

“ You wretched child, how dare you speak 
to me in such a way ! And at such a time as 
this! You are far worse than I ever im- 
agined. Are you aware that I am a Doctor, 
and that you are nothing but a child? ” 

“ I don’t care if you are ! ” said Hilda. 
“You don’t know anything about it. I’m 
going up to mamma now ! ” 

And before the Doctor could stop her she 
had darted up the stairs out of his sight. He 
looked after her in astonishment, and then 
shrugged his shoulders and let himself out 
at the front door. 

Hilda was so excited that she scarcely 
knew what she was doing. She rushed into 


94 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
her mother’s room like a little whirlwind. 
The nurse had gone downstairs for a few mo- 
ments. 

“ Hilda,” said her mother gently, “ come 
here. I have something sad to tell you, but try 
to be brave and bear it. If only your father 
were here to make it easier for us! The Doc- 
tor has just told me ” 

Hilda could hear no more. 

“Mamma! Mamma!” she cried, “I know 
what he’s told you, and it isn’t so! It isn’t! 
It isn’t! You are going to get all well — 
quick ! You will be well to-morrow morning ! 
You will!” 

“Why, Hilda!” said her mother, aston- 
ished by the child’s strange words and man- 
ner. “ I wish it could be so, dear, but the 
Doctor said ” 

“He doesn’t know! He doesn’t know!” 

Hilda fairly screamed as she said this, and 
she stamped her little foot and made such a 
noise that the nurse came running up the 
stairs to see what was the matter. 


THE SECOND WISH 95 

“ Please call the maid,” said Hilda’s 
mother. “ The child is very much excited and 
ought to go to bed, poor darling.” 

So the maid came and carried Hilda off to 
her room. There she undressed her and 
tucked her up carefully and sat by her awhile 
until she seemed more quiet. But as soon as 
the maid had gone, Hilda sat up straight in 
bed and said out loud: 

“ I wish for my mamma to be all well in 
the morning.” 

Then she added: 

“Little elf, little elf. 

Come to me your ownty self. 

Make my spoken wish come true 
As you said that you would do.” 

Ting! A sound like a silver bell chimed 
out in the darkness, and Hilda knew that her 
Wish was heard. So she nestled down in the 
warm bed and let her head sink deep into the 
pillows. She was so tired after all her ex- 
citement that in two minutes she was fast 
asleep. 


96 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

When she awoke it was early morning. 
There was snow all over the window-sill. 
The winter sun was just beginning to send a 
bright shaft into the room. Hilda rubbed 
her eyes and stretched, and then suddenly re- 
membered what had happened the night 
before. In a minute she had jumped out of 
bed and had put on her soft, woolly slippers. 
Down the hall she pattered and into her 
mother’s room. The nurse made a sign that 
she was not to speak loud. 

“ How is mamma? ” whispered Hilda. 

“ Asleep,” said the nurse. “And she is 
much better. I don’t understand it,” she con- 
tinued, half speaking to herself. “ Her pulse 
is quite normal and so is her temperature.” 

Hilda didn’t quite understand this, but 
she knew it was something good. 

“ Is she well? ” she asked. 

“ She seems so,” said the nurse, still look- 
ing puzzled. “ But we must wait till she 
wakes up and sees the Doctor.” 


THE SECOND WISH 97 
Hilda laughed to herself as she scampered 
back to her room to be dressed. While she 
was dressing, she heard steps on the stairs 
and then a loud exclamation from the Doctor. 
Hilda laughed some more. Presently she 
heard her mother say: 

“ But, Doctor, if everything is quite normal 
and there are no symptoms whatever, why 
should I not get up as usual? ” 

“ Madam,” said the Doctor, “ it would be 
quite unprecedented. To be sure, this 
change is most extraordinary, but it is all 
most irregular. Last night you were at the 
point of death, and so it is obvious that you 
cannot yet leave your room in spite of a 
favourable prognosis.” 

“ But I’m going to,” said Hilda’s mother 
rather sharply. “ I feel perfectly well and 
you say you can find no trace of illness. 1 
shall get up at once.” 

“Very well, Madam; very well, Madam,” 
replied the Doctor in his most pompous voice. 


98 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ Then I tell you very plainly, Madam, that 
I give up the case. Yes, Madam, I give up 
the case.” 

“ As you like,” said Hilda’s mother. “ But 
so far as I can see, there is no case.” 

The Doctor snorted, and went down the 
stairs. As he did so, Hilda came out of her 
room and walked behind him. He looked 
around and saw her. His face grew black 
and he frowned. 

“ You! ” shouted he. 

“ Good-morning, Doctor,” said Hilda. “ I 
told you that you didn’t know.” 

The Doctor rushed out of the door so fast 
that he bumped against a tall gentleman in a 
long overcoat who was just coming in. 

As soon as Hilda caught sight of this gen- 
tleman she gave a scream of joy, and the next 
minute she was in his arms. 

“Papa! Papa!” she cried, nestling her 
head down in his big, loose coat. “ Oh, I’m 
so glad you’ve come. Mamma’s been sick, 


THE SECOND WISH 99 
and I’ve had such a bad time, and — but she’s 
all well now.” 

“Are you sure?” said Hilda’s father. 
“ The telegram said ” 

“ Oh, yes! Quite sure.” 

And just at that moment her mother came 
down the stairs in a pretty morning-gown 
and looking as well as she had ever looked in 
her life. 

There was a great bumping on the ver- 
andah, and soon the door opened and a man 
with a big box came in. 

“What’s that?” asked Hilda. 

“ I can’t tell you,” said her father. “ But 
you’ll find out to-morrow night when you 
have your Christmas tree.” 

An hour later breakfast was all over and 
Hilda was in the hall looking at the big box 
and trying to guess what things were in it. 
Presently she heard her mother, who was still 
in the breakfast-room, say something that 
made her stop and listen. 


100 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ But don’t you think it was very wonder- 
ful? ” asked her mother. “ The child seemed 
to be so sure that I should be well in the morn- 
ing. Dr. Sniff en said that I was growing 
worse, but Hilda kept insisting that he 
didn’t know. It was positively uncanny.” 

“Well,” said Hilda’s father, with a laugh, 
“ I fancy that we needn’t make a miracle 
of it. Probably you had a chill or some- 
thing, and Sniff en took it for pneumonia. 
I haven’t much opinion of these cub-doctors 
myself. Hilda happened to hit it off about 
right when she said that he didn’t know.” 

And so they let it go at that. 


VI 


THE THIRD WISH 

T HE Christmas holidays passed quick- 
ly, and Hilda went back to school. 
She came to like her school very 
much, for it was all very much the same as 
play. She learned to sort out coloured 
strings and to put pegs in holes and to count 
blue buttons and to play rat; and they taught 
her ever so many songs. And she liked the 
children, too, all except Frieda. She kept 
out of Frieda’s way as much as she could, 
but in spite of that Frieda would tease her 
or play tricks on her whenever she got the 
chance. Sometimes she would smear Hilda’s 
dress with yellow chalk, and sometimes she 
would pinch her when nobody was looking; 
and she made fun of her to the other children. 

But most of them were fond of Hilda, and 
101 


102 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


would not do anything to make her unhappy. 
So she got along very well and had very 
good times. 

At last the winter ended and then came 
spring; and pretty soon the beautiful June 
days made everybody glad that vacation time 
was near. Hilda had planned to have a little 
party on the day after school ended. She 
thought it would be nice to ask the children 
whom she knew to come and spend the after- 
noon with her on the lawn behind the house, 
where there was a swing and also a pole for 
playing tether-ball. She spoke to her mother 
about it, and her mother said that she would 
have a big cake made, and that Hilda could 
cut it for the children. 

So it was all planned; and Hilda went to 
her friends in the school and asked them if 
they would come. They promised very 
gladly. 

Then Hilda thought that she would ask 
Frieda, for she was a friendly little soul 


THE THIRD WISH 103 
herself and didn’t like to be on bad terms 
with anybody. She wanted to make up with 
Frieda and have the school-year end pleas- 
antly. 

“ Will you come to my party on Saturday 
afternoon, Frieda?” asked Hilda at noon- 
time. 

“Oh, shoo!” said Frieda. “The idea of 
your having a party! A fine sort of party! 
Where’s it going to be?” 

“ On our rear lawn.” 

“What are you going to do?” 

“ Oh, we’re going to play games, and 
swing, and have a good time. Won’t you 
please come, Frieda?” 

“ What are you going to have to eat? ” 

“ A great big cake made on purpose.” 

“What kind of a cake?” 

“A nice white cake — I don’t know the 
name.” 

“Naw!” grunted Frieda, “I don’t want 
to go to such a party as that.” 


104 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ Well, all the other children are coming.” 

“Huh,” said Frieda, with a grin. “You 
think they are, but you don’t know much.” 

“Yes, I do,” replied Hilda indignantly. 
“ They’ve all promised.” 

“ They have, have they? Well, you just 
wait and see.” 

And she went off, laughing to herself in a 
mocking sort of way. Somehow or other 
Hilda felt uncomfortable. She didn’t see 
what Frieda meant, but she knew that it was 
something unkind. And it hurt her to think 
that Frieda would not make up and be 
friendly with her after she had asked her to 
the party. 

The next day was the last day of school. 
After the usual morning session was over, 
the children all said good-bye to Miss 
McFadd, and went out merrily, very glad 
that they were going to have a long vacation 
in the beautiful summer days. As they went 
downstairs and out into the porch, two of 


THE THIRD WISH , 105 
the girls came up to Hilda, looking rather 
uneasy. 

“ Oh, Hilda,” said one of them. “We’re 
sorry, but we can’t come to your party to- 
morrow.” 

“ Oh, dear! Why not? ” asked Hilda. 

“ Well — because, because — we’ve got to go 
somewhere else.” 

Just then several other children came up. 

“We can’t come either, Hilda,” said 
they. 

Hilda was greatly surprised and very much 
hurt. All of a sudden she saw Frieda look- 
ing at her with a grin on her face. It was 
plain that she knew why the children would 
not come. 

“ Won’t you tell me why you aren’t com- 
ing? ” asked Hilda. “ You know you prom- 
ised me you would.” 

“ Fll tell you,” cried Frieda, coming for- 
ward. “ They won’t come to your party be- 
cause they’re all coming to mine ! Fm going 


106 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


to have a big chocolate cake and not any plain 
old white cake like yours. And I’m going 
to have lemonade, too. You don’t know any- 
thing about giving a party.” 

Hilda was terribly grieved. The tears 
came into her eyes as she looked at all the 
children about her. Some of them hung their 
heads and seemed ashamed; but they did not 
say anything. 

“ I thought you were going to come to my 
party because you liked me” said Hilda 
slowly. “You promised to come, and I 
asked you first. Are you all going to stay 
away? ” 

There was a moment of silence, and then 
Tubby said: 

“Well, I’ll come anyhow, Hilda. I think 
it was mean of Frieda to have her party at 
the same time as yours.” 

“ And so do I,” said one of the girls. 

“And I!” — “And I!” said two more of 
them. But the rest said nothing. 


THE THIRD WISH 107 
“ Well/’ said Hilda, “ there’ll be five of us, 
anyway, and we’ll have fun by ourselves.” 

“Huh!” grinned Frieda. “We’ll have a 
look at you. My garden is right next to your 
lawn, you know. What a fine party, with 
only four to come to it? ” 

And she went off, whistling like a boy. 
Hilda was quite unhappy about it all. She 
thought at first that she would ask her mother 
to let her have more things to eat at her party; 
but somehow that didn’t seem very nice, for 
she didn’t want the children to come to her 
just because of what they were going to have 
to eat. So she said nothing; and the next 
day at three o’clock she was dressed prettily 
and went out on the rear lawn to receive her 
guests. 

There was a big elm tree on the lawn, and 
under it was a little table with the big cake 
all covered up in white tissue paper and with 
a silver knife beside it. The lawn was as 
green as an emerald, and the sunlight 


108 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
streamed over it like a shower of gold. Pretty 
soon the four children arrived, all very spick 
and span. 

In a few minutes they had begun to play 
tether-ball and were shouting and laughing 
merrily together. After they were tired of 
that, they took turns on the swing, and then 
they had games. Finally, when five o’clock 
came, they began to be very hungry. 

“ Now,” said Hilda, “ let’s cut the cake.” 

She took the silver knife in her hand, but 
just at that moment a great noise was heard 
on the other side of the fence, and Frieda 
with about a dozen children rushed down 
through her garden, singing and laughing. 
Behind them came a maid with a large tray, 
partly covered. Frieda climbed up on the 
fence and began jeering. 

“ Now you’re going to see what we've 
got!” she called out. “Look here!” And 
she uncovered the tray and showed two large 
chocolate cakes and a big glass pitcher of 


THE THIRD WISH 109 
lemonade. The chocolate cake looked ever 
so good. The chocolate was rich and brown, 
and oozed out from the layers in the most 
delicious way. And the lemonade had lumps 
of ice, and slices of orange, and whole straw- 
berries in it. It would make anybody thirsty 
to look at it, even if one hadn’t been 
playing in the hot sun as all these children 
had. 

Frieda cut the cake into big pieces and 
poured the lemonade into the glasses. Even 
the children in Hilda’s party could not help 
wishing that they were going to have some. 
Their mouths fairly watered, while the chil- 
dren on Frieda’s side of the fence all shouted. 

“ Now go ahead and cut your old white 
cake ! ” cried Frieda. “ Let’s all see what it 
was that you asked us to come and get at 
your party. Ha, ha! ” 

Hilda was so mortified that she didn’t 
know what to do. 

“ Stingy! Stingy! ” cried Frieda. “ Noth- 


110 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
ing but old white cake! Go ahead and cut 
it. We want to see it.” 

And she climbed up on her side of the 
fence and jeered and stuck her tongue out 
at Hilda. 

“Won’t you please go away, Frieda?” 
said Hilda piteously. “We weren’t bother- 
ing you. Why do you want to bother us ? ” 

“ Go on and cut your old cake. I want to 
see what mean things you give at your party. 
I suppose your mother can’t afford to give 
you anything better. I don’t believe you’ve 
even got any cake at all. Look at our lovely 
chocolate cakes, you children! ” 

And she tilted back and forth on the fence, 
jeering and making faces. All the other 
children laughed. 

Hilda grew very angry. Her face flushed 
and she felt that she must not let Frieda go 
on shaming her. She stepped behind the big 
elm tree, and began to speak quickly and in 
a low voice, 





At the Fence 

























• . 






















































































THE THIRD WISH 


111 


“ I wish for the splendidest things to eat 
right away — lots of them — behind the 
hedge! ” 

Then she repeated very fast the rhyme 
which the Elf had taught her. Ting! came 
the little bell-like sound — and then she heard 
Frieda calling: 

“ Coward! Coward! Had to run away.” 

Hilda came out from behind the elm. She 
walked up to where Frieda was standing. 

“We are going to have our things to eat 
now,” she said. “Down behind the hedge. 
Come, children! ” 

She walked to the end of the lawn where 
there was a thick hedge. Her four guests 
followed her, and Frieda and the dozen other 
children went along on the opposite side of 
the fence. 

“ I don’t believe she’s got anything at all,” 
said Frieda. “ She’s going to hide so we can’t 
shame her Oh ! oh ! ” 


And then every child there just stopped 


112 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
and gasped and stared with their eyes as big 
as saucers and their mouths wide open. 

Behind the hedge was set a long round 
table covered with a snowy linen cloth and 
glittering with silver and crystal dishes. At 
one end was a platter with several broiled 
chickens, nicely carved, and with the marks 
of the grill all golden brown upon them. At 
the other end was a wonderful salad nestling 
in green lettuce leaves and decorated in a 
way to make you want to keep it as an orna- 
ment. There was a chocolate cake as big 
around as a small hoople, and a wedding cake 
all iced over with sugar and made to look like 
a great white temple, and then there was an- 
other cake almost as big, with raisins sticking 
out of it all over the top and sides. In little 
silverware baskets were cream puffs and 
chocolate eclairs ; and there were pretty glass 
dishes heaped with marshmallows and cara- 
mels and nougats. Others held grapes and 
oranges and plums; and there were straw- 


THE THIRD WISH 113 
berries all smashed up in sugar and cream 
ready to be eaten. 

But grandest of all was the centre of the 
table, where stood Foxy Grandpa himself 
made out of ice cream, and around him the 
two boys, and birds and animals, also of ice 
cream. There was white ice cream and green 
ice cream and brown ice cream and yellow ice 
cream — in fact, every kind you could think 
of ; and last of all, two crystal pitchers, one 
full of plain lemonade and one of pink lem- 
onade with cherries in. 

When the hungry children saw all this, 
they nearly went out of their minds. Even 
Hilda, who had expected something very 
wonderful, could scarcely believe her eyes. 
However, she tried to look as though it was 
nothing unusual. 

“ Come,” she said to the four children who 
were with her, “ let’s see how they taste.” 

Frieda turned white and then red as she 
looked on. Her chocolate cakes and her 


114 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


lemonade seemed so silly beside all these 
splendid things. She couldn’t say a word. 
And the children who were with her, when 
they saw what they had lost, looked at her 
angrily. 

But Hilda turned around and said to 
them : 

“ Won’t you come over and let’s make one 
party instead of two? Bring your things 
and we will have them all together.” 

The children shouted, and scrambled over 
the fence like wildcats. Only Frieda hung 
back and remained silent. 

“ Please come, Frieda,” said Hilda. “ I 
want you, too. Won’t you be friends? ” 

And then Frieda, for the first time that 
anyone knew of, burst into tears. 

“ I can’t,” she said. “ I’ve been so bad to 
you.” 

44 But you won’t be any more, will you? ” 
said Hilda. 44 Come. I want you most of 
all.” 


THE THIRD WISH 115 

And Frieda came. In about ten minutes 
they had eaten all the chicken and the salad, 
and were chopping Foxy Grandpa to pieces 
with gold spoons. It was the biggest feast 
that any children had ever had in the world. 

That night, as Hilda was going to bed, her 
mother came into the room and sent the maid 
away. 

“ Hilda,” she said, “ come and sit in my 
lap. I want to say something to you. There 
have been some very strange happenings this 
year, and I know that you have a secret which 
you have kept from me.” 

Hilda buried her head in her mother’s neck. 
She felt ashamed and a little frightened. 

“ I heard the other day,” continued her 
mother, “ of how you had made the most 
beautiful basket that anyone had ever made 
at the school. But I know very well that 
you have not learned to make baskets. And 
the night when I was so very ill you told me 


116 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
that I should be well in the morning, and it 
turned out to be true, although the Doctor 
had said that I could not hope to recover in 
a long, long time, if I did at all. And now 
I find that in some way you have had a whole 
table of all kinds of dainties down on the 
lawn; for John has just brought in a basket- 
ful of very exquisite dishes and gold and 
silverware. What does it all mean? ” 

Hilda was very silent and only- buried her 
head down deeper. 

“Don’t you know, dear, that it’s very 
wrong of you to keep anything from me? I 
want you to be always frank and honest, and 
to feel that you can come to me without ever 
being afraid. So tell me now what your se- 
cret is.” 

Then Hilda began and told the whole 
story from the beginning — about the spider 
and the Elf, and how the grass came to turn 
blue, and the basket, and everything until 
she had reached the end. 


THE THIRD WISH 


117 


Her mother sat for a long, long time with- 
out saying a single word, but just rocking 
Hilda softly in her arms. At last she said: 

“ Hilda, it is all very wonderful and hard 
to believe; yet I cannot help believing it. 
Only you ought to do as the Elf said and not 
waste your Wishes on little things. One of 
your wishes probably saved my life, but the 
other two Wishes were just childish Wishes. 
Now, as you think you have two more Wishes 
left, I want you to promise me truly that you 
will not use them until you are quite grown 
up — at least, without telling me and getting 
my permission. Will you promise? ” 

“Yes, mamma,” said Hilda; “I promise 
truly.” 


VII 


THE LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN. 

H ILDA was curled up on a heap of 
cushions in her father’s library, 
which he called his Den. She liked 
this room better than any other in the house. 
The walls were lined with books, and over the 
mantel hung two big swords and a collection 
of curious pipes; while spurs and hunting- 
crops and riding-gloves were scattered around 
in a careless sort of way. In winter a great 
wood fire was kept blazing on the hearth, 
and the whole place was so cosy and com- 
fortable, and the cushions on the couch were 
so soft and fluffy, that Hilda was always de- 
lighted when she was allowed to stay there 
and make herself at home. 

On this particular morning Hilda’s father 

had been telling her stories about Sherlock 
118 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 119 
Holmes. Sherlock Holmes was a famous 
English detective who could find out every- 
thing about you just by looking at you, be- 
cause he noticed all sorts of little things that 
no one else ever thought of. If a robbery 
happened anywhere, the policemen would 
come to Sherlock Holmes, and after asking 
them a few questions he would be able to tell 
them how the robbers had done their work 
and who they were, and how to catch them. 
He called this “ deducing.” 

Hilda liked to hear about Sherlock 
Holmes. Her father told her the stories in 
such a way that she could see everything just 
as though it were happening before her very 
eyes, and she used to get tremendously ex- 
cited over them; and in the most interesting 
parts she would jump up and down and clap 
her hands and scream with delight. No other 
stories pleased her so much, except those in 
the Jungle Books. 

This morning her father had told her four 


120 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
stories, one after the other; for when he once 
began, she was never willing to let him stop, 
and kept teasing for another. But this time, 
after finishing the fourth, he had turned 
around to his big desk, and said that he had 
some writing to do. 

“ Just one more.” said Hilda coaxingly. 
“ That last one was so splendid! ” 

“No, Hilda,” said her father; “that’s 
enough for once. Besides, you ought to go 
outdoors and have a run in the open air. It 
stopped raining an hour ago, and the wind is 
blowing so that the walks are dry.” 

“ Oh, but it’s so cold outside, and I love it 
here. Give me some chocolates and I will sit 
as still as a mouse while you write.” 

“Yes, but I haven’t any chocolates.” 

“ Well, then, one more story.” 

“ Very well,” said Hilda’s father. “ When 
I was in the Mexican War ” 

“Papa!” cried Hilda. “You know you 
were never in the Mexican War! You al- 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 121 

ways begin that way when you want to tease 
me.” 

Hilda’s father looked at her very solemnly, 
though his eyes twinkled. 

“ Why, how could I tell what happened to 
me in the Mexican War if I wasn’t there? ” 

“ Oh — but the Mexican War was a hun- 
dred years ago, and you were only a little 
baby then.” 

Hilda’s father burst out laughing. 

“Well,” he said, “that’s the only story I 
can tell you before luncheon time. So, as I 
said, when I was in the Mexican War ” 

But Hilda, who knew her father’s ways 
very well, scrambled out of the cushions and 
left the Den; and presently she was running 
about the wet garden- walks with two or three 
friends of hers who had come over to 
play with her when they saw her out of 
doors. 

About two hours later she appeared in the 
Den once more, very rosy from her exercise 


122 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
in the high March winds, and with her eyes 
as bright as stars. 

“ Now,” she cried, plumping down into 
the cushions and with a toss of her head like 
a little princess, “ it’s noon, and you ought to 
tell me another story or else give me some 
chocolates.” 

“ But where could I get any chocolates? ” 
said her father, looking very much surprised. 

“Oh, maybe you’ve been to the village 
while I was out. Have you? ” 

“ Why don’t you find out for yourself? Be 
a Sherlock Holmes. He wouldn’t have to 
ask. He’d be able to tell without asking. 
Come now, deduce! ” 

“ But I don’t know how you mean. Oh, 
yes ! I’ll hunt around the room to see if I can 
find any chocolates.” 

“No, no,” said her father; “that isn’t de- 
ducing. Stay where you are in the cushions, 
just as Sherlock Holmes would do, and then 
see if you can tell two things — first, whether 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 123 
I have been to the village, and next, whether 
I have brought you any chocolates.” 

Hilda was greatly puzzled for a moment, 
but she was also very much interested. It 
seemed like the beginning of some new and 
exciting game. 

“Use your eyes, and notice everything, and 
then think ” said her father, leaning back in 
his chair and watching the eager little face 
that peered out of the cushions. 

Hilda began to gaze around her and ob- 
serve each object in the room. She looked 
at the chairs and shelves and pictures, and 
then at the rug before the fire, and then the 
mantel, and then the desk. How was she 
going to find out? Suddenly her eyes rested 
on her father, and she gave a little start. 

“Oh, now I know you’ve been out!” she 
cried. “ When I was in here before, you had 
on your smoking- jacket, and now you’ve got 
on your coat. That shows you’ve been out.” 

“No,” said her father, “that doesn’t show 


124 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
that I’ve been out. Perhaps I was only get- 
ting ready to go out.” 

Hilda paused a minute, not knowing what 
to say. Then she noticed something else. 

“Yes, but there’s your overcoat lying on 
the chair. It was downstairs before, and if 
you were just going out it would be there 
still. You wouldn’t bring it up here. You’d 
put it on, on your way out.” 

“Good!” said Hilda’s father. “You’re 
getting to be a Sherlock. Yes, I’ve been out; 
hut how do you know I went to the vil- 
lage? Perhaps I took a walk in the other 
direction. Come now, deduce some more.” 

Hilda was puzzled, and her face fell. 

“ That’s too hard,” she said, after think- 
ing a moment. “ How am I going to tell 
where you went? You oughtn’t to expect me 
to find out just by looking around.” 

“ Sherlock Holmes would find it out just 
by looking around,” replied her father. 
“ Come now, try hard and notice everything.” 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 125 

Hilda felt like giving it up; but she was 
so interested that she thought she would try 
once more. This time she didn’t gaze around 
the room very much, but looked very care- 
fully, . first at the overcoat, and then at her 
father, examining him from head to foot. 

“Well,” she said slowly,. “ the only thing 
that I can see is that you have mud on your 
boots. That doesn’t help me any, because I 
know already that you’ve been out some- 
where Oh, yes, it does too ! ” she cried 

suddenly. “ Yes, it does ! Oh ! oh ! ” and she 
clapped her hands with a scream of delight. 
“ I know you’ve been to the village. There 
are sidewalks and crosswalks in the other di- 
rection, and they are all dry now. But when 
you go to the village you have to cross over 
by Bell Street, where there isn’t any cross- 
walk. And the middle of the street is aw- 
fully muddy. I’ve guessed it! I’ve guessed 
it!” 

“You mean that you’ve deduced it,” said 


126 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
her father. “ But suppose I did go to the 
village, how do you know that I brought you 
any chocolates? ” 

“ Oh, well,” said Hilda, with an air of per- 
fect confidence, “ I know you wouldn’t go to 
the village without bringing me some choco- 
lates.” 

Her father lay back in his chair and 
laughed. 

“ That’s what most people call ‘ induc- 
tion,’ ” said he. “ But you’re quite right. I 
did go to the village, and I did bring you 
some chocolates. Now deduce where they 
are.” 

“Oh, dear!” complained Hilda. “Have 
I got to do that, too?” 

But she was so interested in this new kind 
of amusement that she was glad to try it 
again. So she settled herself down in the 
cushions once more and looked as wise and 
every bit as serious as Sherlock Holmes him- 
self. 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 127 

“ Let me see,” she began. “ If you hid 
them, of course I can’t guess — deduce, I 
mean — where they are. But I don’t believe 
you’ve done that. So I suppose you brought 
the box up here, because you were going to 
give it to me when I came back. ... I 
don’t see it anywhere, though. . . . Per- 

haps you put it in the pocket of your 
overcoat. . . . No, you don’t like to have 

the pockets of your overcoat bulge out. You 
said so the other day. So I think you car- 
ried it in your hand. Then when you came 
in you just put it down anywhere. . . . 

Yes! yes! You put it on the chair, and then 
took off your overcoat and threw it down on 
top of the chocolates. Hurrah! Isn’t that 
right? ” 

Hilda’s eyes sparkled with excitement. 
Her father said nothing, but walked over to 
the chair and lifted the overcoat. Under it 
lay a beautiful, long white box tied with a 
pink ribbon. 


128 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ I deduced it! I deduced it! ” cried Hilda, 
sliding out of the cushions. At that moment 
the maid opened the door of the Den. 

“ Luncheon is served, sir,” said the maid. 

“Come along, Hilda,” said her father. 
“You’ve earned the chocolates; only don’t 
eat any until after luncheon.” 

Hilda’s mother was away from home, 
making a visit of two days to Aunt Maria; 
so that evening Hilda was allowed to sit up 
a good deal later than usual. She loved to 
sit up late and to have dinner with her father, 
just as if she were grown up, instead of hav- 
ing it early in the nursery. And after din- 
ner she was not sent to bed at once, but went 
into the Den and stretched herself out on the 
rug before the big wood fire. 

It was just right, she thought — so warm 
and comfortable, with the great logs blazing 
on the hearth. Outside the wind blew hard, 
for another storm was coming up. But in the 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 129 
Den it was bright and warm, and the firelight 
flickered on the swords above the mantelpiece 
and was reflected from the bronzes on the 
book-shelves. Best of all, as Hilda thought, 
her father told her more stories about Sher- 
lock Holmes and of his adventures with rob- 
bers, and of how he was nearly killed in a 
strange place ever so far underground, called 
the Gas Chamber. Hilda’s eyes grew very 
big while she listened to these stories, and 
sometimes she was so excited that she forgot 
to eat her chocolates. At last, however, her 
father happened to look at the clock and 
noticed how late it was. 

“ Why, Hilda! ” he cried. “ It’s after nine 
o’clock. You must be off to bed this very 
minute! ” 

And she barely had time to swallow the 
last bit of chocolate, when he picked her up 
and carried her to her own little room at the 
end of the long hall. There the maid had 
been waiting for her ever so long, and very 


130 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
soon she was tucked up in bed, and was left 
to fall asleep. 

Now, it would have been better if Hilda 
had been put to bed at the regular hour and 
had not sat up for dinner, and if her father 
had not told her such exciting stories and let 
her eat chocolates until nine o’clock. Her 
mother would have been wiser than that ; but 
a man is always more careless about children 
and just likes to give them a good time, never 
stopping to think of what is really best for 
them. 

So it happened that after Hilda had been 
tucked up in bed and the light had been 
turned out, she could not get to sleep for a 
long while. Her mind was very wide awake, 
and her thoughts were full of robbers and 
thieves and gas-chambers. When she did 
finally fall asleep, she dreamed all sorts of 
things and was very restless, turning over in 
the bed again and again. 

All of a sudden she woke with a jump. 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 131 
What was that? It sounded like stealthy 
steps in the hall. She sat straight up in bed 
and listened, for she was now quite wide 
awake. The room was so dark as to be black; 
and even when she turned toward where the 
window was, she could not see the faintest 
light. Outside the wind moaned and the sleet 
rattled on the window-pane. But Hilda was 
quite sure that she had heard someone walk- 
ing very softly. 

She got out of her bed as still as she could 
and opened the door into the hall. Every- 
thing was as black as ink. She listened. 
Nothing at first; then a sort of clanking 
sound from below, in the direction of the 
kitchen. 

Hilda crept through the hall to the head 
of the back stairs and peered down them. 
From the keyhole in the kitchen door came a 
faint glimmer of light. Someone must be 
there. 

“ Nobody ought to be there in the middle 


132 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
of the night,” thought Hidla. “ If anyone 
is in there, it must be a robber.” 

She stole softly back through the hall until 
she came to the door of her father’s room, for 
she knew her way about in the dark just 
like a little mouse. The door was half open. 
Hilda went in and felt her way up to the bed. 
Then she put her hands out until she found 
her father’s face. He was sound asleep, and 
Hilda moved his head back and forth gently 
to waken him. Pretty soon he stirred, and 
said sleepily: 

“ Oh, I say! What’s the matter? ” 

“ S-s-sh!” said Hilda in his ear. “Papa, 
you mustn’t speak loud. There’s a robber 
downstairs.” 

Hilda’s father was now wide awake.. 

“ What? ” he whispered back. “ A robber? 
Where? ” 

“ In the kitchen,” answered Hilda. 
“ There’s a light there. I saw it, and heard 


someone. 







































- 



















































LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 138 

“Well,” whispered he, “You mustn’t 
freeze to death, even if there is. Just creep 
in here under the covers, and I’ll go and see 
what’s up.” 

So Hilda crawled into the nice warm place, 
which she was glad enough to do, for her 
little feet were as cold as ice. Her father 
got up and lit a tiny night-light. Then he 
put on a big heavy bathrobe and slippers. 
Hilda watched him with great excitement. 
She was not a bit afraid now, for she felt 
that her father could manage a robber, or 
any number of robbers. It was the most 
interesting thing that had ever happened in 
her life. 

Meanwhile, her father went across the hall 
to the Den, and came back with one of the 
swords that hung over the mantel. 

“ I’m sorry I haven’t any cartridges for 
my revolver,” he whispered. “ But this’ll 
do, I think. You stay where you are, Hilda, 
and don’t be afraid.” 


134 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


Then he covered the night-light with a 
newspaper, and stole out into the darkness 
of the hall. He went to the head of the 
back stairs and listened. Sure enough, some- 
one was in the kitchen. With the heavy; 
sword in his hand, he went down the stairs, 
one step at a time, so as not to make any 
noise. At last he reached the door. 

“ Now,” said he to himself, “ I’ll slam 
the door open, and bang in on him with the 
sword, and get him before he has a chance 
to run or shoot.” 

He turned the knob very quietly, and then 
burst into the kitchen, sword in hand. 

There was a wild howl, and a woman’s voice 
cried: 

“ Och, murther! Sure, I’m kilt! ” 

Hilda’s father stopped short, and gave one 
look around him. A kerosene lamp stood on 
the kitchen table, and by its light, Lizzie, the 
cook, was making a fire in the range. She 
had had her hands full of kindling wood, 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 135 
which she had dropped all over the floor when 
Hilda’s father rushed in. 

“What are you doing here in the middle 
of the night? ” he asked sternly. 

“Middle of the night, is it? ” returned 
Lizzie, with a sniff. “ Sure it’s foive o’clock, 
and I was afther makin’ the fire early, hekase 
it’s wash-day.” 

Hilda’s father looked at the kitchen clock, 
which showed that it was really after five 
o’clock. The stormy winter morning had 
made the house so dark that it seemed like 
midnight. He felt very foolish, standing 
there in his bathrobe, with feet slippered and 
a big sword in his hand. 

“ Good gracious ! ” he cried, and then 
turned and hurried back up the stairs to 
where Hilda lay, nestled down in the bed. 

“ Oh, papa! ” she cried; “ did you capture 
the robber? Where is he?” 

“ Bother the robber! ” he said, as he threw 
the sword into one corner of the room and 


136 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
uncovered the light. “ It was only Lizzie 
making the fire, and it’s five o’clock. What 
on earth made you think there was a rob- 
ber? ” 

“ Why,” said Hilda simply; “ I — I de- 
duced it.” 

Her father sat down on the side of the 
bed and laughed till he was out of breath. 

“Well,” he said at last, “that comes of 
telling you about Sherlock Holmes. I must 
have looked like a wild idiot. Now, Hilda, 
you’d better go back to bed and let us finish 
our sleep. It’s three hours yet before break- 
fast.” 

But Hilda felt very comfortable where 
she was. So she said coaxingly: 

“ Oh, well, if it’s really morning, you can 
tell me some more stories from now till break- 
fast-time. It’s nice and warm here.” 

“Not a story! ” said her father. “ I want 
the rest of my sleep after that adventure.” 


LIGHT IN THE KITCHEN 137 

“ Oh, please, papa,” said Hilda; “ just one 
story, and then I’ll go.” 

“ All right,” he answered. “ I suppose I’ll 
have to. So here goes. When I was in the 
Mexican War ” 

“ Papa! ” cried Hilda, who knew his ways 
very well. “You’re just too mean for any- 
thing!” V 

And then she pulled his hair and kissed 
him, and climbed out of the bed and scam- 
pered back to her own room at the end of the 
hall. 


VIII 


GRIMGRIM 


Hilda grew older, she used to walk 



much further than the meadow 


where she had met the Elf. In time 
she almost forgot about the Elf, though 
whenever she passed that corner of the 
meadow she always looked at it for a mo- 
ment. The big stone with which she had 
smashed the spider was there still; only now, 
in summer, it was almost hidden by the grass 
and burdock leaves that had grown up 
around it. 

But this was only the starting-point for 
her rambles into the fields and the deep 
woods beyond them. She liked to go out 
with other children, but she never went with 
them into these shady nooks. Somehow she 
felt that it was nice to have some places all 
to herself. She was never lonely there, 


138 


GRIMGRIM 139 

but she called to the birds and bees and the 
little squirrels, as though they were all 
friends of hers. At first she went only a 
little way into the woods. She did not wish 
to get lost. After a while, however, she went 
further and further, and felt very much at 
home among the tall ferns, and among the 
trees that grew so close together in the inner 
forest. She wound her way through dense 
thickets, and crossed little brooks on step- 
ping-stones, and she loved the fragrance of 
everything that grew and budded and blos- 
somed. 

One day she was sitting under a tall, shady 
tree, busily putting together a great cluster 
of wild flowers which she had gathered, when 
she heard a strange sound. It was like a 
hoarse cry, and then turned into a sort of 
snarl. Hilda listened, and heard it again and 
again. 

“ I wonder what that can be,” she said to 
herself. “ It must be some animal, only I 


140 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
never knew any animal that made a noise like 
that.” 

The cry and snarl came once again right 
out of the thickest of the woods. 

“ Well, anyhow,” said Hilda, “ I’ll go and 
see.” 

So she put her flowers down, and began 
to push aside the thick bushes. The sharp 
cry came louder than before. Hilda broke 
her way through the thicket, and found her- 
self in an open glade which was echoing with 
the strange noise. But now she could see 
just what had made it. In the midst of a 
cluster of ferns crouched an enormous cat, 
as black as coal, and with eyes that looked 
like circles of green fire. The cat seemed to 
be trying to leap into the air, but something 
held it back, so that every time it leaped, it 
gave a fearful screech, and then snarled as 
fiercely as a tiger. When it saw Hilda v it 
opened its mouth and showed two rows of 
glittering teeth and a long red tongue, and 


GRIM GRIM 141 

this time it tried to leap at Hilda. But the 
same thing that held it back before still held 
it back, and it could not get at the child. 

“ Goody! ” said Hilda. “ What a big cat! 
And what’s making it so cross? ” 

For Hilda liked cats, and knew their ways, 
and never teased them. So she wasn’t afraid, 
even though this cat was big and black and 
fierce. She walked carefully around it and 
tried to find out what had happened to it. 
Pretty soon, as the creature gave a leap and 
fell back, Hilda saw that a steel chain was 
fastened to one of its legs. 

“Ah, now I know!” cried Hilda. “The 
poor thing has been caught in one of those 
horrid weasel traps that the huntsman sets. 
De-e-ar me! And the cat thinks I set it. 
That’s why he’s jumping at me so. Now 
what am I going to do? He looks as if he’d 
eat me up, when all I want is to help him get 
out.” 

The cat stopped leaping as Hilda spoke, 


142 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


but he glared at her fearfully, and crouched 
as if ready to spring again. 

“Well,” said Hilda, “I’ll tell him how it 
is, and then I’ll try and get him out of the 
trap. I don’t believe he’ll think I had any- 
thing to do with it then.” 

So in her wise little way she stood in 
front of the cat and explained all about how 
the men had set the trap for weasels, and 
how she herself had nothing to do with it, 
but that she was going to try her best to un- 
fasten the trap. 

The cat flattened his ears and ran out his 
claws — they were terribly long sharp claws — 
but he kept very still. Perhaps he thought 
he would wait until he saw what was going 
to happen. Anyway, as soon as Hilda had 
finished what she had to say, she walked 
straight up to the cat and, bending over 
him, poked her hands down into the ferns to 
find the trap. 

The cat quivered all over, but did not move. 


GRIMGRIM 


143 

“Ah!” said Hilda, “there’s the chain, 
and the big iron teeth that have got your 
poor leg so fast. Oh, how it must hurt! Wait, 
now, and let me see if I can pull the things 
apart.” 

The cat’s leg was caught in a sort of steel 
jaw that gripped it between two rows of 
jagged teeth. Hilda had good strong arms, 
and she pulled with all her might. The cat 
gave a dreadful yell of pain. But at the 
same minute the steel jaw opened, and — 
whir-r-r! — away went the cat, as if he had 
been shot out of a gun. He zipped through 
the bushes so fast that Hilda could see only 
a streak of black for half a second, and then 
the animal was gone. 

“ Well! ” said she, looking in its direction, 
“wasn’t that the strangest thing! I think 
he might have stayed a minute and let me 
bathe his paw in the brook. But what an 
e-nor-mous cat he was! As big as any two 
cats that I ever saw.” 


144 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

But pretty soon Hilda gathered up her 
flowers and arranged them, and then went 
home as usual. She told her mother what 
had happened and then forgot all about it. 

About two months later she started out 
early in the afternoon for a long trudge 
through the woods. The air was crisp, but 
the sun shone gloriously. She felt like going 
further than she had ever gone before, and 
she thought that perhaps she might find 
some hazel-nuts. She paddled in the brook 
and caught three or four turtles, with yellow 
dots on their black shells. She tried to scoop 
up a minnow or two in her hands, but they 
were too quick for her. In this way she 
wandered on and on, until she met the hunts- 
man walking through the woods. 

“ Hullo, little girl,” said he, in a deep- 
toned voice, “ aren’t you pretty far from 
home? ” 

“ Yes,” said Hilda, “but I know the 
woods.” 


GRIMGRIM 


145 


“ Well,” said he, “don’t go much further 
that way.” And he pointed down a long, 
thick-shaded sort of avenue in the forest, 
where the trees made a long arch. 

“Why not?” asked Hilda, catching at a 
butterfly. 

“ Oh — well — because it’s better not. Prom- 
ise me.” 

“ I haven’t time to go any further,” said 
Hilda; “for I must be home to dinner.” 

“ All right,” said the huntsman. “ Re- 
member.” 

After he had gone she wondered why he 
had told her not to go down the dark avenue. 
The more she wondered, the more curious 
she became. So she thought to herself that 
she would go down there just a little way 
to see if there was anything remarkable. The 
dark avenue was so shaded that the sunlight 
barely entered it at any time, and now that 
it was late in the afternoon the place was 
very gloomy. No birds sang there, and the 


146 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


stillness was strangely unlike the woods that 
Hilda knew. Yet she kept walking on, rather 
slowly, but still bound that she would see 
what was at the end. Pretty soon she heard 
a rustling in the leaves beside her, and a for- 
est child — a young boy — darted out and took 
her by the arm. 

“What is it?” asked Hilda, much sur- 
prised. 

But the boy only pointed down the glade, 
and motioned to her to go back, shaking his 
head. 

“What is down there?” said Hilda; for 
she was puzzled by the way in which the boy 
acted. 

He gave her no answer, but made a quick 
sign on his forehead and his breast, and then 
vanished into the thicket again, and was 
gone. 

“Well, I think that’s very queer,” said 
Hilda. 

She hesitated for a moment, but then de- 


&RIMGRIM 147 

cided to go on, for it looked as though there 
was more light in front of her, and as though 
some of the trees had been cleared away. 
And she found that this was so. A few 
more steps brought her to an open place, 
where there was a sort of large hut with a 
steep roof. No one seemed to be in it, 
though, for it was very still. As Hilda 
looked, she saw in front of the door of the 
hut a circle traced upon the ground by a 
dull grey line. 

“ There must he some children here,” said 
Hilda to herself. “ That ring looks as though 
they played games in it.” 

She went on a little further and stepped 
inside the circle on the ground. All at once 
the dull grey line disappeared, and in place 
of it there sprang up toadstools and curious 
plants, and tiny wriggling snakes. At the 
same moment, the door of the hut flew open 
and a tall old woman came out. She was 
dressed in a red cloak and wore a pointed 


148 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
hat. Her face was puckered up in a kind of 
grin when she saw Hilda. 

Hilda, as soon as the little snakes began to 
writhe in the circle around her, turned and 
tried to hurry away. But a strange power 
held her fast. Do what she would, she 
couldn’t get out of the circle. Her legs 
wouldn’t move, and she felt as if she were 
rooted to the ground. 

“ No, no,” said the old woman, in a strange, 
croaking voice; “ those who come to my house 
cannot leave it when they wish. You will 
stay a while with me, my pretty miss — per- 
haps longer than you think.” 

“ Oh, please let me go! ” cried Hilda. “ I 
must go home.” 

“ No, no, no,” replied the old woman, grin- 
ning still more, and squatting down beside 
the circle. “ Look at me, my pretty miss, 
and tell me what you think I am.” 

Hilda looked at her red cloak, her peaked 
hat and leering face, and remembered some 



The Witch’s Circle 
























GRIMGRIM 


149 


pictures in one of her story-books which told 
about a woman who looked like this one. 

“ I — I — think,” she said, faltering a little, 
“ I think you must be a — a — witch.” 

The old woman grinned more than ever. 

“ Ah, you know, do you? ” said she. “ And 
you wanted to visit me, did you?” 

“No, I didn’t,” answered Hilda. “I 
never heard that you lived here.” 

“ But you came,” said the Witch ; “ and 
you are here. The huntsman told you not to 
come, and the forest child warned you; yet 
you had your own way.” 

“ Please, please, please let me go,” begged 
Hilda. 

“No, no, no,” croaked the Witch. “Lit- 
tle girls who come to see me never go away. 
Many things happen to them, but never that. 
They never go away.” 

“But what will happen to me?” asked 
Hilda piteously. 

“That we shall see,” said the Witch. 


150 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
“ That will depend on Grimgrim’s sign. 
Come, Grimgrim! Come, Grimgrim!” And 
she gave a gurgling whistle. 

Instantly there bounded out of the house 
a huge black cat, with enormous green eyes. 
Hilda knew him at once. He was the cat 
that had been trapped in the weasel-trap. 

“ Come, Grimgrim,” said the Witch, look- 
ing fondly at the beast. “ Here’s a pretty 
miss come to see us. She wants to know what 
will happen to her. Give me a sign, Grim- 
grim, by teeth or claws, or by the bristling 
tail. Give me a sign! ” 

The monstrous cat leaped into the circle. 
It glared at Hilda for a moment out of its 
green eyes, and then it sniffed at her skirt. 
The Witch looked on, leering. Suddenly the 
cat arched its back and began rubbing its 
head against Hilda’s knees, walking slowly 
round and round, and purring a low hoarse 
purr like the sound of a bass-drum when you 
rub it. As he did so, the toadstools and 


GRIMGRIM 


151 


snakes disappeared, and the dull grey line of 
the circle came back again. 

The Witch leaped to her feet. 

“ What does this mean, Grimgrim? ” 
screeched she. “You never gave me such a 
sign as this before!” 

The great cat mewed and mewed — a mew 
beginning with a short, sharp cry and ending 
in a long howl. 

“Ah-h-h!” said the Witch, “was it she 
who did it? Ah-h! Then, come, little miss, 
out of the ring. You are free to come and to 
go, for you were brave enough and kind 
enough to save my Grimgrim.” 

Hilda stepped out of the circle and looked 
at the Witch, whose face no longer grinned 
and leered. She seemed very pleasant. 

“ Do not be afraid,” said the Witch. “ You 
shall be safe.” 

“ I’m not afraid, now,” answered Hilda, 
who was, indeed, much interested. 

“Will you come into my hut?” asked the 


152 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
Witch. “No one else ever came here and 
went away again, except up through the air. 
But you are different.” 

Hilda was very curious to see what a 
witch’s hut was like; so she walked in, fol- 
lowed by the Witch and by Grimgrim, who 
still kept purring. The hut was very plainly 
furnished. There was an open fireplace, a 
few chairs, and around the wall hung ket- 
tles and pans and several broomsticks. As 
Hilda went in at the door a chair moved 
out from its place by the wall and slid up 
to her all by itself. 

“ Goodness! ” cried Hilda, much surprised. 
But she sat down in it politely. 

“You must be tired,” said the Witch, 
“and hungry. You’ve had nothing but a 
few hazel-nuts.” 

“ Why, yes,” said Hilda. “ How did you 
know?” 

“Because I am a Witch. But, dear me! 
Dear me! What is this? I smell magic.” 


GRIMGRIM 153 

She began sniffing in every direction, and 
then she chanted to herself: 

“Magic, magic in the air, 

Magic, magic here and there, 

Magic, magic more than mine — 

Magic, magic, show the sign!” 

“What is it?” asked Hilda. But the 
Witch kept moving about, and crooning over 
and over the words : 

“ Magic, magic more than mine, 

Magic, magic, where’s the sign? ” 

Suddenly she stopped and bent over 
Hilda. “ Why, it’s you! ” she cried. 

Then she ran her long skinny hand down 
Hilda’s arm. 

“ Hold up your hand! ” she ordered. 

Hilda held up her hand. The ring on it 
shone like fire. 

“Ha!” exclaimed the Witch. “I knew! 
I knew! I knew! 


Magic, magic more than mine. 
Magic, magic, here’s the sign! * 


154 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ Why, what do you mean? ” asked Hilda. 

“Where did you get that ring? ” 

“ Oh, I’ve always had it, ever since I was a 
little baby.” 

The Witch gave her a strange look, and 
then backed away. 

“Yes,” said she, “I understand, though 
you do not. But come! We must have a 
fire. It is growing cool.” 

On the fireplace was a pile of logs, but 
there was no fire. The Witch took a broom- 
stick and touched the logs. At once a 
bright flame flared out of them, and they 
began to blaze and crackle. She waved her 
broomstick twice, and a big iron kettle sailed 
down from the wall and took its place just 
over the fire. There was nothing to hold it 
up, but it stayed there in the air all by 
itself. 

“Now,” said the Witch, “you have come 
far and are hungry. You will sup with me.” 

“ Oh, no,” said Hilda, who was not sure 


GRIM GRIM 155 

that it was wise to eat a witch’s food. “ I — 
I’m not very hungry, and I’d better go.” 

“Wait,” said the Witch. 

She touched the top of the kettle with her 
broomstick, and a faint steam began to rise 
from it. Then she slowly crooned: 

“ Who will taste of the Witch’s fare? 

Chicken and duck and lamb and hare. 

Turnips and onions, not a few. 

Simmer and sizzle and steam and stew. 

Plenty of peppers are in the pot. 

Making it rich and piping hot. 

Chicken and duck and lamb and hare — 

Who will taste of the Witch’s fare?” 

As she crooned, the steam from the kettle 
came thicker and faster, and there was a 
sound of things stewing inside. The smell 
of the stew was ever so good, and Hilda’s 
hunger became very sharp. Grimgrim sat 
down by the fire and licked his chops, as he 
sniffed the savoury smell. 

“ Now,” said the Witch, “ it is ready.” 

A thick oak table slid into the middle of 
the room. A bluish bowl, a small platter, and 


156 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


a knife, fork, and spoon came from some- 
where and settled down on the table. The 
Witch seized a great wooden spoon and stirred 
the stew in the kettle; and then, taking up the 
bowl, began to ladle out the stew into it. The 
smell of it was still more delicious than be- 
fore, and when Hilda had a platter full of 
it before her she didn’t stop to ask any ques- 
tions, but just ate and ate, for she was fairly 
ravenous. A piece of buttered brown bread 
appeared beside her platter, and she ate it 
with the stew. As soon as she bit a piece out 
of it, another came in its place, so that when 
she had eaten all that she could possibly hold, 
the bread was there just as though she had 
not touched it. She leaned back with a sigh 
of contentment. She felt so comfortable and 
well fed and warm by the blazing fire. 

“ Thank you so much for the supper. 
Witch,” she said. “ May I give Grimgrim 
the bones? ” 

She gave a whole platter of bones and 


GRIMGRIM 


157 

pieces of meat to Grimgrim, and then turned 
around toward the door. It was partly open 
and Hilda gave a cry of surprise. 

“Why!” she exclaimed. “It’s all dark! 
I didn’t dream it was getting so late.” 

“ Never mind,” said the Witch, “you shall 
reach home safely. But before you go I 
must give you something. One whom you do 
not know has given you a gift, and some day 
she will give you more. Another has also 
given you five gifts, of which two still re- 
main. I, for the sake of my familiar, Grim- 
grim, will give you still another gift, though 
my magic is less. Close your eyes.” 

Hilda closed her eyes. The Witch placed 
her thumbs on the closed lids. The she said: 

“By the power of my thumbs, 

Fear you not, whatever comes. 

Look into the angry eye, 

Then its harm shall pass you by.” 

“There! Open your eyes and go your 
way,” concluded the Witch. 


158 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ But, Witch,” said Hilda, “ it is all dark. 
I can find my way through the woods in the 
daytime, but in the dark I shall get lost, and 
my papa and mamma won’t know where I 
am.” 

“ Oh,” said the WitcH, “ you must follow 
the Moving Light.” 

“ What is the Moving Light? ” 

“ Come, and I will show you.” 

They both went out of the door. The 
night was pitchy dark in the woods. Hilda 
could not see her hand before her face. The 
Witch gave a strange call, and instantly on 
the ground, right in front of Hilda, there 
was a spot of bright yellow light. 

“Follow that,” said the Witch. “Don’t 
be afraid. You need not take any care, but 
just follow on. Only don’t look around.” 

Hilda took a step forward, and at once 
the spot of light began to move. She walked 
fast, and the Moving Light went faster. 
She walked slowly, and the Moving Light 


GRIMGRIM 159 

went slower. She stopped, and the Light 
stopped. 

“ Good-night, Witch,” called Hilda as 
she passed into the darkness. “ And good- 
night, Grimgrim!” 

On glided the Moving Light; and, though 
Hilda could not see anything but the glow- 
ing spot on the ground, she went swiftly 
through the forest. Not a single branch 
brushed her in the face. Not a stone or moss- 
hillock or fallen trunk tripped her up. She 
walked as easily as though she had been 
upon a smooth and level road. She kept her 
eyes fixed on the Moving Light, on, and on, 
and on, until she was dismayed to see it sud- 
denly disappear in the gloom. 

“Oh, dear!” cried Hilda. “Why has it 
left me? What am I going to do now? ” 

But as she spoke she looked up, and there 
in front of her was a house, from whose win- 
dows many lights streamed cheerily out into 
the blackness. 


160 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ Why,” said Hilda, amazed, “ why — it’s 
— no, it isn’t — yes , it is — it’s my house! ” 

And, sure enough, it was. She ran to the 
door, and then right into the arms of her 
father. 

“ Wherever have you been so late? ” asked 
he. And her mother, coming out of the din- 
ing-room, caught Hilda close to her and be- 
gan to cry. 

“Oh, it’s all right,” said Hilda. “I’ve 
just been in the woods.” 

“ In the woods at night? ” said her father, 
whistling with surprise. “Well! I’m glad 
I didn’t know, or I should have been as wor- 
ried as your mother. However, you must 
be starved, so come in and have some dinner.” 

“ Oh, I’ve had dinner. I — er ” And 

then Hilda stopped, and became confused. 

“Had dinner? In the woods?” said her 
father, raising his eyebrows. “ Where would 
you get dinner in the woods? ” 

Hilda hardly knew how to tell the story, 


GRIMGRIM 


161 


but presently she went into the Den, and 
there, curled up in the cushions, she did tell 
everything that she could remember. Neither 
her father nor her mother spoke a single 
word. 

“ There!” said she, at the end, “ that’s all. 
I wasn’t much afraid at any time. And 
I don’t think the Witch is really bad. But 
what did she mean about ‘magic more than 
mine,’ and why did she make me hold up my 
ring for her to see? I didn’t understand that 
at all.” 

Her father and mother looked at each 
other in silence. Then her mother said 
gently: 

“ Some day, when you are older, I will 
tell you what she meant. But to-night you 
must be a tired little girl; so come upstairs 
with me, since you’ve had your dinner, and 
get a good long sleep. It’s after bedtime, 
dear.” 

Later in the evening, when Hilda was 


162 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


fast asleep, her mother came down and 
said: 

“Now, don’t you think it’s terrible to let 
the child go roaming about in the way she 
does? It makes my heart stand still when I 
think of what might have happened to her.” 

But her father answered, quite content- 
edly: 

“ No. If it were any other child, I should 
be afraid. But I’m absolutely sure that, no 
matter where she goes, no harm will ever 
come to Hilda.” 


IX 

HILDA MAKES A NEW FRIEND 


I NEVER saw such a stuck-up girl as 
you are, Hilda! ” 

This is what Frieda said one morn- 
ing as she stopped by the verandah of Hil- 
da’s home to speak with her. 

“Why, what do you mean, Frieda? I’m 
not a bit stuck up.” 

“ Yes, you are. You give yourself such 
airs. You never ask me to go anywhere with 
you. Just as if you had anything to be so 
proud about! ” 

After the party on the lawn, years before, 
when Hilda had used her third Wish, Frieda 
had given up trying to make Hilda unhappy, 
openly, or in any rough ways. For a while 
she was ashamed of herself, and all the other 
children had grown so fond of Hilda that 
they would not join in any plan to tease her, 

163 


164 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
or give her trouble. But Frieda was still 
as jealous of her as ever, and often said un- 
pleasant things behind her back, and some- 
times even to her face. Hilda knew all this 
quite well, but she was very sweet-tempered 
and did not try to pay Frieda back. Only 
she did not have much to do with her ; and it 
was true that she never asked her to any 
parties, or to walk or ride, when she got her 
friends together. As the two girls grew 
older, this made Frieda very hateful in her 
heart. Hilda was prettier and everyone liked 
her, because she was so friendly and gener- 
ous ; while no one cared for Frieda very long. 
She was not a bad-looking girl, but she had 
a sharp tongue, and wanted always to have 
her own way. So she had no real friends; 
and when she saw how much Hilda was 
loved, she could hardly bear it. 

On this particular morning she had stopped 
in front of Hilda’s house and called out to 
know whether Hilda was going to walk. 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 165 

Hilda said she hadn’t decided. Then Frieda 
had said: 

“ I never saw such a stuck-up girl as you 
are ! ” 

Frieda knew that Hilda would not ask her 
to walk, but she was bound to hurt her feel- 
ings if she could. So she went on, with a 
sneer : 

“ You’re just as plain as a pie-plate. You 
haven’t anything to say but just silly little 
prattle, like a baby’s. And yet you act as 
if you were a grand lady, putting on all 
kinds of airs. Dear me! The Princess 
Hilda ! ” And Frieda made a low curtsey, 
laughing in a scornful sort of way. “All 
the girls think you are too conceited to live ! ” 

This was quite untrue, for Hilda was not 
a bit conceited, and no one thought that she 
was. But when Frieda said this, it hurt. 

“ I don’t want to talk about it any more,” 
said Hilda. And she got up from her chair 
and went into the house. 


166 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“Well, it’s true!” called Frieda after 
her. 

Hilda was sure that Frieda was only say- 
ing this for spite; yet the taunts troubled her 
all the same. 

“Am I stuck up? ” she asked herself. “ Do 
the girls really think I put on airs?” 

No girl likes to feel that everyone is think- 
ing unkind things about her, and Hilda could 
not easily forget Frieda’s words. 

“ I wonder,” she thought, “ whether a girl 
who had never seen me before would like 
me. She wouldn’t have to pretend to if she 
really didn’t.” 

She sighed, and put on her hat, and went 
down through the garden, and out into the 
road. She had no special reason for going 
there. She just wanted to get out into the 
sunshine, and away from all thought of 
Frieda. 

Pretty soon the road led her between rows 
of big country trees — elms and maples and 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 167 
oaks. The sidewalks ended, and she walked 
in the long grass beside the road. The sweet, 
fresh air did her good, and she went briskly; 
along. Presently, as she entered a thickly 
shaded part of the road where there were 
woods on each side she heard, a long way off, 
the sound of a galloping horse. As it came 
nearer, it changed to a trot. Hilda sat down 
on a stone and waited to see the horse go by. 
Her father had promised her a pony for her 
fifteenth birthday, but she was only fourteen 
now. 

Pretty soon, down the road, came a great 
black horse ridden by a tall girl with beau- 
tiful golden hair. A big dog ran close be- 
side the horse. Just as they passed Hilda, 
the girl cried out: 

“Whoa, Rex! I’ve lost my girdle.” 

The big horse stopped at once. Then the 
girl said: 

“ Run back, Towser, and find my girdle 
for me, and bring it here.” 


168 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

The dog barked three times, and scurried 
back up the road further into the woods. 

“You didn’t see it drop off, did you?” 
said the girl to Hilda, looking all about her 
on the ground. “ I’ve only just missed it.” 

“No,” said Hilda, “what was it like?” 

“ Oh, it was of twisted gold — very curiously 
made.” 

“And how does you dog know what you 
want him to do? He seemed to understand 
as soon as you spoke to him.” 

“ Yes, indeed,” said the girl. “ He under- 
stands everything that I say to him. Ah! 
Here he is now, coming back.” 

They heard a muffled bark, and in a mo- 
ment the dog came galloping down the road 
with a shining circle in his mouth. He 
stopped when he reached the girl on the 
horse, and looked up at her, wagging his 
tail. 

“ Thank you, Towser,” said the girl. And 
then she added to Hilda : “I think I’ll have 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 169 


to get down so as to fasten the girdle on 
again.” 

She slid from her horse. 

“ Rex,” she said, “ you may walk up the 
road for a little way and eat the clover along 
the fence, while I put on my belt.” 

The big horse neighed, and went slowly 
off, nosing out the clusters of clover, and 
nibbling at them with great satisfaction. 

“Why,” said Hilda, “the horse under- 
stands you, too, and minds you! ” 

“Yes. Now, dear, will you help me ar- 
range this girdle?” 

It was a beautiful girdle of braided gold 
strands twisted together in a very quaint pat- 
tern. 

Hilda admired it very much. 

“ Yes, it is pretty,” said the girl. “ It was 
given to me by — by — by a friend.” 

“ What were you going to say? ” 

“ Oh, nothing. Only I have had some 
strange adventures happen to me since I was 


170 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
a very little girl. But you wouldn’t believe 
them if I told you about them.” 

“Yes, I would,” said Hilda; “for I’ve 
had some strange things happen to me, too.” 

“ Well, not so strange as I have,” returned 
the girl, sitting down on a hillock of grass. 
“ I don’t believe that you ever saw any real 
Brownies.” 

“ No-o, but I’ve seen a real Elf, and talked 
to him.” 

“ Have you, really? ” said the girl, much 
interested. “ But you’ve never seen a great 
big Giant.” 

“No,” replied Hilda, “but I’ve seen a 
Witch.” 

“Dear me!” cried the girl. “I thought 
nobody else but me had such things happen. 
Will you tell me all about it? And then I’ll 
tell you. Come, sit down by me. And I 
want to know your name, for I feel I shall 
love you.” 

Hilda blushed with pleasure. 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 171 
“ My name is Hilda/’ she said. 

“ Oh, what a lovely name ! My name is 
Mabel; and I’m so glad to have you for a 
friend, for I know hardly any girls. The 
only one I ever played with a great deal was 
a giant girl named Elsie; but she’s gone 
away now.” 

“ A giant girl? Where has she gone? ” 

“ Oh, her father, Cormoran, has a lot of 
castles, and he lives sometimes in one and 
sometimes in another. He lived not so very 
far away from my home for a long time; but 
now he’s in a castle hundreds of miles away. 
And Elsie, of course, went with him.” 

“ You must be awfully sorry.” 

“ Yes, for she was dear . But, after all, 
she finally grew so big that we couldn’t have 
much fun together. She couldn’t hear me 
when I spoke to her, because her head was so 
high in the air, and I didn’t like to scream 
up at her all the time. And when she picked 
me up and held me near her face, she would 


172 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
almost squeeze me into a jelly. Of course, 
she didn’t mean to, only she didn’t know how 
strong she was and how it hurt to have her 
pinch me with her fingers.” 

“ How tall was she?” asked Hilda, who 
was tremendously interested. 

“ Oh, pretty nearly as tall as a church 
steeple. When I first knew her she was quite 
small — about eight feet high — but she grew 
awfully fast after she began. The giant 
doctor said that she outgrew her strength, and 
he used to give her pills as big as footballs; 
but she was too strong for me ! " 

“ Oh, I wish I could see the castle some 
time!” exclaimed Hilda. 

“ Why, so you can, if you’ll come and visit 
me. And I’ll show you lots of other things. 
But now tell me about the Elf and the 
Witch.” 

So Hilda told her story, and all about the 
Witch. Mabel asked ever so many ques- 
tions. 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 173 

“What did she mean when she put her 
thumbs on your eyelids and said, 4 Look into 
the angry eye ’? ” 

44 I’m sure I don’t know,” said Hilda. 

44 Well,” replied Mabel, 44 1 fancy you’ll 
know some time, for the Witch meant it for 
a sort of gift.” 

44 Maybe,” said Hilda. 44 But now you tell 
me about the Brownies.” 

So Mabel began and told all about the 
Brownies’ Cave, and the King Brownie and 
the jar of Brownie jelly, and a great many 
things that perhaps you may have read of in 
another book. The two girls chatted together 
for the longest time, and finally walked on 
for a long distance over the forest road. But 
at last Hilda said: 

44 Oh, I really must go home now, for it’s 
luncheon-time or even later.” 

44 Must you really go?” asked Mabel. 
44 Why, we haven’t begun to talk yet. I am 
so glad I met you, for I know I am going to 


174 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


love you very much. You must come as soon 
as ever you can to my house. Grandma will 
make you welcome, and I will show you 
Walter’s goat, and we can both ride on Rex 
as far as the Giant’s Castle. You can’t miss 
our house. You keep straight on this road 
till you pass the Cross Dog’s house, and just 
before you come to the Frog’s Brook. Oh, 
I didn’t tell you about that, did I? Well, I 
will next time. Now, good-bye, dear.” 

“And you must ride over to my house,” 
said Hilda. “But — look, Mabel! What is 
that in the bushes on the other side of the 
fence? I saw two big eyes, and a furry face 
through the leaves. It was some kind of an 
animal.” 

“ Oh,” said Mabel, “ that must be the Good 
Wolf that I told you about. He often fol- 
lows me when I ride ; but he keeps among the 
bushes, because he doesn’t like to be seen by 
human beings. But he is awfully good. 
Well, now, good-bye.” 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 175 

She put both her arms around Hilda’s 
neck and kissed her. Then she gave a swift 
leap and was in the saddle. A moment later 
and she and Rex and Towser were lost to 
sight, and the sound of hoofs grew fainter 
and fainter in the distance. 

Hilda was so pleased that she clapped her 
hands with delight. 

“ There ! ” she said. “ Mabel never saw me 
before, and she likes me awfully, just as I 
like her. I don’t believe a word of what 
Frieda said. Won’t it be lovely to have such 
a chum as that! But, gracious! I must 
hurry home ! 

To save time she hurried into the woods, 
for she could go across them by a path that 
was shorter than the road. The place where 
she entered the woods was near the bushes 
through which she had seen the two big eyes 
and the furry face. She had forgotten all 
about them, because Mabel had told her that 
they were the eyes and face of the Good 


176 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
Wolf who was hiding there. But unfor- 
tunately, it was really the Bad Wolf. He 
had long made it a habit to skulk about where 
Mabel rode. 

He could not touch Mabel, for she knew 
the Call of the Animals; but he was always 
hoping that some other person might be 
with her and that he might be able to get 
this person into his power. He had waited 
long, and often he had snarled hungrily when 
no one came. But now the very thing that 
he had hoped for was happening. A nice 
plump girl was coming through the woods 
where he lay in wait. He ran out his long, 
red tongue and licked his chops greedily. 

Hilda went into the woods with a swift, 
eager step. She had not gone far before she 
heard a sort of swift patter on the leaves be- 
hind her. She turned, and there was the Bad 
Wolf. 

For a moment her heart almost stopped 
beating, for he was a frightful-looking crea- 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 177 
ture. His fur was mangy and hung from his 
skin in great tufts. His eyes glowed like 
coals. His huge mouth was wide open, and 
his jagged teeth gleamed yellow as he gave a 
long, savage growl. He drew near Hilda 
step by step as she stood facing him. He 
was not only eager to eat her, he was cruel 
as well. He longed to terrify her as much as 
he could before he finally dragged her down. 
So he reared himself on his hind legs and 
thrust his bony head forward almost into her 
face. 

Somehow, just at that moment, there 
flashed across Hilda’s mind the words “ Look 
into the angry eye.” Her fear seemed all 
at once to vanish. She drew herself up to 
her full height, and instead of shrinking back 
from the hideous wolf -face, she leaned for- 
ward and looked down into the two red eyes. 
It was as if she had thrust a white-hot poker 
into them. The Bad Wolf leaped back with 
a howl and cowered on the ground, shivering 


178 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
all over. Then he turned and began moving 
slowly away. 

“Go home!” cried Hilda* just as if she 
were speaking to a dog. 

But the Bad Wolf was not to get off so 
easily. As he slunk away, there shot through 
the trees something that looked like a big, 
black furry thunderbolt. Whiz! It landed ex- 
actly on the Bad Wolf’s head. It uttered a 
fearful screech, and a moment later the Bad 
Wolf gave a terrible cry of pain. Hilda 
looked hard for a second and then she under- 
stood. It was Grimgrim. His teeth y^ere 
sunk into the Bad Wolf’s head and his great 
claws were at work like a buzz-saw. It was 
all over in a few minutes, for the Bad Wolf 
gave one leap into the thicket and ran for 
dear life to the den where he lived with his 
cub, leaving Hilda to go home in peace, much 
excited by her adventure and by finding out 
what the Witch’s gift had meant. 

Three or four days afterwards, the Fox 


MAKES A NEW FRIEND 179 
met the Bad Wolf and noticed that he had 
lost an eye. 

“ Aha! ” said the Fox. “ This reminds me 
of old times. Been falling off a fence again 
and getting into a bramble bush? ” 

“ Yes,” growled the Bad Wolf, trying to 
pass hastily by. 

“ Oh,” said the Fox, “ you needn’t think I 
don’t know perfectly well what you’ve been 
at. Last time, you tried to kill the Farmer’s 
little son. This time, I suppose you’ve tried 
to catch some other child. Well, I advise you 
to stop it; for if you lose your other eye and 
become blind, the rest of the wolves will kill 
and eat you. That is the Law of the Wolves.’' 

The Bad Wolf knew this very well, and 
fear was in his heart. So never again did 
he try to harm a child; and not long after- 
wards he gave up hunting altogether, and 
made his cub go out and kill for both of them. 
For the cub had now grown to be a full-sized 
wolf. 


X 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 

H ILDA and Mabel became the best 
friends in the world. Mabel would 
ride over on Rex to Hilda’s house, 
and the two girls would have all sorts of fine 
times together; and after Hilda had a pony 
given her on her fifteenth birthday, she used 
often to go cantering through the woods to 
spend the day with Mabel. Together they 
rode about the country, past the Cross Dog’s 
house, and by the Kitty Cat’s, and where the 
Mooly Cow lived, and across the Frog’s 
Bridge. Several times they took the long 
ride to the Giant’s Castle, hut it was now 
closed and silent. The great crimson flag 
no longer floated from its central tower, and 
the immense gates were barred. The men in 

red still worked in the fields, and everything 
180 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 181 
was kept in perfect order for the time when 
the Giant would return. These men in red 
always saluted Mabel most respectfully, for 
they knew that she was a friend of the 
Giant’s daughter. 

Altogether these years were very pleasant 
to Hilda. She was well and strong and she 
had many friends, though the dearest of all 
was Mabel. Since the day when Frieda had 
broken out into such a bad temper, Hilda 
had even less to do with her. She was always 
polite to her when they met, but she knew that 
Frieda hated her. So the days and months 
went on, until at last Hilda had grown so 
tall that the time came for her to let her skirts 
down and to put her hair up, for she was 
nearing her eighteenth birthday. She was 
no longer a child, but had reached woman- 
hood — a sweet and dainty and wise young 
maiden, whom you would turn around to look 
at when you passed her. 

One day her mother called her into the 


182 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
library and said that she wished to speak with 
her. 

“ Sit down, please, dear; and let me shut 
the door before I begin to talk to you.” 

“ Why, mamma, how serious you look ! If 
I hadn’t such a good conscience, I should 
think you were going to scold me.” 

“ No, darling, not that. But there is some- 
thing that I must tell you, and yet I don’t 
know just what to say about it. It seems so 
impossible, and yet I can’t help believing in 
it.” 

“Dear me! I can believe lots of things 
that most people can’t, because strange things 
have happened to me — and to Mabel, too,” 
she added thoughtfully. 

“Well,” said her mother, “what I am 
going to tell you is the strangest of all, and 
the end of it hasn’t happened to you even 
yet.” 

“ Oh, please tell me! ” cried Hilda. “ Is it 
a secret? I’m just wild to know.” 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 188 
“ I shouldn’t tell you now,” said her 
mother, “ except that next week you will be 
eighteen years of age, and you will see pres- 
ently why I ought to prepare you for some- 
thing or other — I don’t know just what — 
which may happen.” 

“ Goodness ! How mysterious ! ” exclaimed 
Hilda. “ Don’t stop, but tell me quick! ” 

“ Look at the ring that you wear on your 
finger,” said her mother. “ Do you know how 
long you have worn it ? ” 

“ Why, always,” replied Hilda, rather sur- 
prised by the question. “ As far back as I 
can remember, I have worn this ring, and 
everyone admires it. Only it is so tight that 
I can’t get it off.” 

“Yes,” said her mother, “that is what I 
want you to think about. You have worn it 
ever since you can remember, and in that time 
you have grown from a little child to a tall 
girl, and now you are really a woman, yet the 
ring has never been taken off your finger and 


184 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
still it has never been too small for you to 
wear.” 

Hilda’s eyes blazed with excitement as the 
strangeness of the thing flashed across her 
mind for the first time in her life. She even 
turned a little pale, for it seemed quite un- 
canny. And she had never even thought of it 
before. This was the strangest of all. 

“Why — why — why ” she stammered. 

“ How was it? What does it all mean? ” 

“Who do you suppose gave you such a 
ring? ” asked her mother quietly. 

“ Why — I — don’t know. I think Alice told 
me once that it was given me when I was 
christened.” 

“ Yes, that is true. And now I must tell 
you really what happened when you were 
christened — what I saw, and what all four of 
us who were present saw, though we do not 
speak of it.” 

Then Hilda’s mother went on to tell the 
whole story of the christening, just as it has 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 185 
been told in the first part of this book; and 
she also told how Lena had tried to steal the 
ring and had been hurt by some strange 
power. And then she told what the jeweller 
had said to her about the gem and about the 
metal of which the hoop was made. 

Hilda listened with astonishment, her eyes 
opening wider and wider. She uttered little 
exclamations of surprise as the story went on, 
and when it was ended, she said: 

“ Now I see just a little of what the Witch 
meant when she made me hold my ring up 
for her and spoke of ‘Magic, magic, more 
than mine.’ ” 

“Yes, and you remember, dear, I promised 
to explain it to you some time. Now I have 
done so, and I am sure that the lady or fairy 
or whatever she is will make herself known to 
you when you are eighteen.” 

“How wonderful it all is!” said Hilda, 
still thinking of everything that she had just 
heard. 


186 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ Of course,” said her mother, “ it is like a 
book and is really quite impossible; yet how 
can I doubt what I have seen myself and what 
so many saw with me? And after all, it isn’t 
any more wonderful than the Wishes.” 

“ Oh, the Wishes! ” exclaimed Hilda. “ I 
had almost forgotten them. They seem like 
a sort of dream.” 

“ They were no dream,” her mother replied, 
“ and you still have two. You promised me 
not to use them until you were grown up. On 
your eighteenth birthday the time of your 
promise ends, and the Wishes are your own. 
You do not need to ask my leave to use them.” 

“ Oh, dear! ” cried Hilda, “ isn’t it just too 
exciting ! I feel so like a girl in a play. Here 
I have two Wishes that will bring me any- 
thing, and a fairy godmother who may ap- 
pear at any moment, and a magic ring, and all 
sorts of delightful things hovering around in 
the air. I’m crazy to tell somebody all about 
it.” 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 187 

“ Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” cautioned her 
mother, “ because, after all, it may just pos- 
sibly be a mistake of some kind, and then you 
would be laughed at.” 

“ Mabel wouldn’t laugh,” thought Hilda, 
“ and she would believe it.” 

But she said no more ; and, after kissing her 
mother, went out on the lawn and walked up 
and down, thinking over everything that she 
had just learned. She was very much excited. 
Her face flushed rosy red, and she looked so 
beautiful that Frieda, who lived in the next 
house and was watching her from the porch, 
grew fairly green with envy. 

“ Conceited minx ! ” snapped Frieda to her- 
self. “ She thinks she looks so fine that she 
parades up and down the lawn for people in 
the street to see her. I’d like to take the 
pride out of her! ” 

Just then Mabel came riding along the 
street. 

“ Oh, Mabel! ” cried Hilda, almost scream- 


188 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
in g with delight. “ I’m so glad you’ve come! 
There’s something that I’m just dying to tell 
you. Do hurry, for we must have a long, long 
talk together. It’s secrets ! ” 

“Oho!” said Frieda softly to herself. 
“ Secrets, is it? Now what has that stuck-up 
thing got to tell Mabel? They’re a pair. I 
don’t think one of them is any better than the 
other. They both of them think the ground’s 
not good enough for them to walk on.” 

Mabel dismounted and told Rex to go 
around to the stable. Hilda fairly hugged 
her as she touched the ground. 

“ Now come with me, this very minute,” she 
said, putting her arm around Mabel’s waist. 

“ We’ll go down to the rear lawn in my 
Bird’s Nest, and then I’ll tell you a whole lot 
of things. You are the only girl I know who 
will really understand.” 

So they went around the house and down 
the garden to the rear lawn where Hilda had 
what she called her “ Bird’s Nest.” It was a 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 189 
cosy little nook just big enough for two, close 
to the hedge. A clump of thick shrubs grew 
there in the shape of a half -moon, making a 
sort of sheltered alcove, all green leaves and 
blossoms. Inside it on the turf were two pine- 
needle cushions. Hilda and Mabel had often 
sat there together talking, shaded by the 
leaves and looking out upon the sunlit lawn. 
Now they hurried to it, and crept under the 
vines that were trailed across the opening. 

You will remember that Frieda’s home was 
next to Hilda’s and that their lawns were sep- 
arated only by a hedge in one place and a 
fence in another. So when Frieda overheard 
Hilda say that she had secrets to tell Mabel, 
and when she saw the two girls go together 
down the lawn to the Bird’s Nest, the thought 
came into her head to spy upon them and, if 
possible* to hear what Hilda’s secrets were. 
This was very mean of Frieda, but she was 
like that. Therefore, as soon as she had 
watched the two disappear in the leaves, she 


190 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
began to walk very slyly along her own side 
of the hedge, taking care to make no noise. 
In this way she reached a place very near to 
where Hilda and Mabel were sitting. Be- 
tween them there was only the hedge and the 
shrubbery that formed one side of the Bird’s 
Nest. 

Frieda sat down on the grass and put her 
ear against the hedge. She could hear Hilda 
talking eagerly, and Mabel now and then ask- 
ing a question. But she could not make out 
every word that was said, for Hilda spoke 
sometimes in a low tone of voice, and some- 
times the leaves rustled so in the breeze that 
she could catch only a bit here and a bit there. 
Still she managed to get some sort of an idea 
of Hilda’s secret, though not exactly the right 
one. What she did hear made her quiver with 
jealousy, and grow red with anger. Some- 
thing very fine was likely to come to Hilda 
soon. That much Frieda learned. But be- 
fore she could listen to the very end there was 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 191 
a rustling in the hedge, and soon after, the 
face of Towser looked over the top of it. He 
had been sniffing around for quite a while, 
for he had an uneasy feeling that someone 
was about. So he got up on his hind legs 
and put his paws on the top of the hedge and 
looked over. 

Frieda was startled by his long nose and 
big paws so near her; and she was afraid that 
she would be caught listening. So she slunk 
away quickly into the garden path, and then 
to her house, where she sat for a long time 
trying to understand what she had heard. 
She wanted to do something to hurt Hilda’s 
feelings. 

The next day all the girls were at a lawn 
party — Frieda, Hilda, Marie, and the rest. 
While they were sitting together in a sort 
of summer-house eating ices and chatting, 
Frieda suddenly spoke up in a rather loud 
voice so that everyone stopped talking to 
listen. 


192 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ Oh, Hilda,” said she, “ I hear that you are 
expecting some very grand lady to come and 
visit you next week. You think she’ll bring 
you a lot of beautiful things, don’t you? ” 

Hilda was so astonished that she couldn’t 
answer. She blushed and felt dreadfully em- 
barrassed. 

“ But you aren’t quite sure she’ll come, are 
you? So you haven’t told us. And you 
think that perhaps she’s your grandmother, — 
only maybe, after all, she isn’t. Won’t you 
tell us all about it? ” 

Hilda looked up and saw the grin on 
Frieda’s face. 

“ Why, Frieda,” she said. “ I don’t know 
how you heard any such thing as that.” 

“ Oh, news gets about. It must be rather 
odd not to know who your own grandmother 
is, and whether she is a grand lady or not. 
How sad it will be if she turns out to be a 
very common person! ” 

“Really, Frieda,” said Marie, “what are 


FRIEDA PLANS MISCHIEF 193 
you driving at? It seems as if you were just 
trying to tease Hilda.” 

“ And I heard a funny thing about that 
ring of yours,” continued Frieda, “the one 
you’re always waving your hand to show off. 
Was it really a stolen ring? Did one of your 
nurse-girls steal it from somebody and then 
your mother took it away from her and gave 
it to you to wear? Why didn’t she give it 
back to the owner? I’m sure I shouldn’t like 
to wear stolen jewellery! ” 

“Frieda, Frieda!” cried Hilda, rising. 
“ You’ve got everything all wrong. Nothing 
is the way you tell it, and you’re saying it only 
to be spiteful. Marie, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll 
say good-afternoon.” 

And she left the summer-house and walked 
away, very much vexed at the things that 
Frieda had said. 

But Frieda looked after her with a mock- 
ing grin, and said to the other girls : 

“ See how she left as soon as I spoke about 


194 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
her grandmother and the stolen ring. You 
may depend upon it, there’s something very 
queer about that girl.” 

Several of those present, being curious and 
fond of gossip, crowded around Frieda. 

“Oh, tell us what you mean?” they said. 

“ How did you know about the stolen ring, 
and what is it about Hilda’s grandmother? ” 

“ No, no,” answered Frieda, shaking her 
head with a mysterious air. “ I don’t care to 
tell all I know, for I like Hilda, although she 
is so conceited. But I’d rather not say any 
more.” 

When the lawn-party was over, a good 
many of the girls went away with the idea 
that something unpleasant was about to hap- 
pen to Hilda, and that Hilda had reason to 
be ashamed of someone in her family. 

And Hilda herself was troubled because 
Frieda seemed to know a part of the story. 
How was it all going to turn out? 


XI 


THE SIX DRESSES 

H ILDA’S eighteenth birthday dawn- 
ed with a flood of rosy light. When 
she came to the breakfast-table it 
was heaped with roses, and her chair was filled 
with all kinds of lovely presents, done up in 
packages of every size and shape ; for all her 
friends had remembered her. It was as good 
as Christmas, and she couldn’t touch a bit of 
breakfast until she had opened every single 
package and bundle — large and small, square, 
round* smooth, and crumply. It was excit- 
ing fun, and Hilda gave little cries and 
squeals of joy as the wrappers came off of 
each mysterious package. 

After all the presents had been piled upon 
the sideboard where she could look at them 

195 


196 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
now and then, she had her breakfast with her 
father, who usually came down late. 

“Now don’t tire yourself out,” said he. 
“ You’ll be up half the night at your birth- 
day party. So take it easy to-day. Besides,” 
he added with a smile, “you haven’t heard 
from your godmother yet.” 

Hilda grew serious. 

“ No,” she answered. “ And do you know, 
papa, I had — oh, just the least little hope — 
that when I woke up I should find something 
wonderful in my room — that maybe she would 
be standing beside my bed, or that in some 
way she would let me know that she was 
thinking of me.” 

“ So you really believe in her — and that she 
was a fairy? ” 

“ Why, yes ! ” cried Hilda. “ Don’t you? ” 

“ Oh, of course. But, then, I believe any- 
thing. Besides, you know, I saw her once. 
Still, perhaps, in these days fairies may 
not have so much power as they used to 


THE SIX DRESSES 197 
have. It may be harder for them to ap- 
pear. So I wouldn’t set my heart on get- 
ting a pailful of diamonds, or a gold auto- 
mobile, or even on seeing the — er — lady at 
all.” 

“ Oh,” said Hilda, “ I wasn’t thinking 
about any presents, but I did think that she 
would at least come to me and let me really 
speak with her.” 

“Well,” said her father, “she might pos- 
sibly come to your party this evening — only 
you haven’t sent her any invitation, not know- 
ing her name and address. e Miss or Mrs . 

, Fairyland / That’s rather indefinite. 

By the way, I wonder whether fairies are 
Miss or Mrs., or sometimes one and some- 
times the other. Do your books say any- 
thing about married fairies? ” 

“You’re just making fun of it all!” said 
Hilda pretending to pout — a most adorable 
little pout. “ Yes, I’ve read of a King of the 
Fairies as well as a Queen of the Fairies. 


198 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
And don’t you remember Oberon and Titania 
in Shakespeare?” 

“ Oh, bother Shakespeare! ” said her father. 
“ I hate Shakespeare for breakfast. Cut me 
off another bit of the steak, please. It’s the 
noblest steak I ever saw. Now, when I was 
in the Mexican War ” 

“Papa!” cried Hilda, throwing a rose at 
him and running out of the room. When her 
father began talking about the Mexican War 
she knew that he wanted to be left alone to 
read his newspaper over his breakfast, which 
was a very bad habit of his. But neither she 
nor her mother could ever break him of it. 

She went out on the lawn and sat down 
under a tree to think about her birthday party. 
It was the first evening party that she had 
ever given and she wanted it to go off beauti- 
fully. She went over all the arrangements 
that she and her mother had made — the musi- 
cians, the flowers, the favours for the danc- 
ing, the supper, — in fact, everything. All 


THE SIX DRESSES 


199 


her friends had been asked and they had all 
acccepted. Since the lawn-party, she had not 
seen Frieda to speak to, and had tried not to 
see her. Yet when she came to send out the 
invitations, she sent one to Frieda, too. She 
did not wish to think that anyone was 
her enemy, and she herself had forgiven 
Frieda for the mean things that she had 
said. And Frieda sent word that she was 
coming. 

So the morning passed away. After lunch- 
eon, Hilda went to her room for a little nap, 
and when she woke she heard sounds in the 
rooms below where the workmen were putting 
up the decorations and waxing the floor for 
dancing. 

“ 111 go out in the garden,” thought Hilda, 
and see if they have taken the right flowers.” 

The garden was in the rear of the house 
and was divided by a long, narrow path that 
led to the back lawn. On each side of the 
path was a low hedge and beyond the hedges 


200 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
were beds of flowers. No one was there; so 
Hilda walked slowly down the path, looking 
carefully at the flowers. When she reached 
the end, she stopped and stood for a mo- 
ment in the sunshine. Her eyes rested upon 
the greensward of the lawn before her when 
— all of a sudden there was someone there, 
standing in front of her, where a second be- 
fore there had been nobody! 

It was a lady dressed in a silvery, shim- 
mering grey — tall and stately and with a 
wonderful face, and eyes that made you feel 
that you must mind her, no matter what she 
said. Hilda fairly gasped, for the lady had 
appeared to her so quickly. 

“Hilda,” said she, in a voice that was like 
the sweetest music, “ do you know me? ” 

“ Yes,” answered Hilda, for she knew at 
once. “ Yes. You must be my godmother.” 

The Fairy smiled. 

“ I am, indeed, your godmother,” said she, 
“ and you have believed in me and have ex- 


THE SIX DRESSES 


201 


pected me. It is only foolish people who will 
not believe in fairies. I have watched you 
ever since you were a little child, and now I 
have come to you as I promised long ago 
when your name was given you by me, with 
the ring you wear.” 

“ It is so good to see you really,” answered 
Hilda ; for there was something that made her 
love the Fairy as soon as she had heard her 
speak. 

“ I have come on your birthday,” continued 
the Fairy, “ and I shall come again on your 
wedding-day. And that is very soon.” 

“ Oh ! ” gasped Hilda, in astonishment. 

“Yes,” said the Fairy. “Go to your 
mother and tell her that one week from this 
very day at sunset you are to be married, and 
that she is to make ready.” 

“ But, but,” stammered Hilda, “ I — I don’t 

— I don’t believe Why — whom am I to 

marry? ” 

“ One week from this very day, at sunset,” 


202 HILDA AlSTD THE WISHES 
said the Fairy, looking Hilda in the eyes, 
“ there will come the Prince who lives in his 
palace beyond the Shining Mountains. He 
it is whom you will marry. 5 ’ 

“ But, 55 said Hilda, greatly surprised, 
though she could not doubt the Fairy, “I 
never heard of him. I never saw him. 55 

“ It matters not,” replied the Fairy, with a 
beautiful smile. “ I am his godmother as 
well as yours. I have meant you for each 
other. When once you speak to him and 
when once he speaks to you, it will be as 
though you had known him all your lif e. F or 
this, my child, is the miracle of true love. 
When true lovers meet — a day, an hour, a 
minute even, are the same as many years. 
You will know that you were meant for him, 
and he will know that he was meant for you. 
So do not fear and do not doubt, but go now 
and give my message to your mother.” 

Hilda was too dazed to speak. The Fairy 
paused for a moment and then went on: 


THE SIX DRESSES 203 

“ Your mother,” she said, “ may think that 
you only dreamed all this. I will give you a 
sign that it is true. Close your right hand 
except your little finger.” 

Hilda did so, wondering. 

“ Now open it.” 

Hilda opened her right hand, and there in 
the palm of it lay an exquisite pearl, lustrous 
and finer than any pearl that she had ever 
seen. 

“Oh, how beautiful!” cried she. 

“ Now,” said the Fairy, “ carry my message 
to your mother, and if she doubts, give her 
this sign by making other pearls appear as 
this one has. Tell me, will you do exactly as 
I say ? It is for your happiness.” 

Hilda looked up and saw the Fairy’s eyes 
fixed upon her with a gaze which seemed to 
go straight through her. 

“ Yes,” she answered, as though in a dream. 
“ I will do exactly as you say.” 

And even as she spoke, though she was 


204 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


looking intently at the Fairy — there was no 
one there. 

Hilda’s mind was full of puzzled, anxious 
thoughts. Her knees trembled so she could 
scarcely walk. Yet, with it all, she was happy 
in a strange, new way. Everything in the 
world seemed to be changed. Just then she 
heard a loud voice near her. 

“ W ell, Hilda ! Have you been day-dream- 
ing? Why were you talking to yourself so 
queerly? ” 

It was Frieda, who suddenly leaned over the 
hedge and looked on her in a mocking sort of 
way. She was the last person in the world 
whom Hilda wished to see. But she drew her- 
self up and tried not to look as if anything 
unusual had happened. 

“ Talking to yourself!” repeated Frieda. 
“ Are you practising a piece? ” 

“ You’re quite mistaken, Frieda. I wasn’t 
talking to myself. I was talking to a — a 
lady.” 


THE SIX DRESSES 


205 


“Well, that’s pretty good!” said Frieda, 
laughing loudly. “ I saw you all the time, and 
there wasn’t anyone near you. I couldn’t 
hear what you said, but you seemed to he 
talking to the air. You’re not going on the 
stage, are you? ” 

“ You didn’t see right,” said Hilda. “ And 
please excuse me, for I have to go in and see 
about the arrangements for my party.” 

“Very well,” said Frieda, with a short 
laugh. “ I suppose you think that no one 
ever had such a party before!” 

But Hilda was already entering the house, 
where she found her mother in her own room, 
talking with Aunt Maria, who had just ar- 
rived. 

Hilda was too excited to mind Aunt Maria, 
and burst out with the news. 

“Oh, what do you think happened?” she 
cried. “ I’ve seen my godmother — in the 
garden ! ” 

“ The Fairy? ” asked her mother. 


206 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ That — female? ” asked Aunt Maria, with 
a sniff. 

“ Yes, the Fairy, and she talked with me 
and gave me a message for you.” 

And then Hilda told the whole story. Her 
mother heard it with deep interest, but Aunt 
Maria kept sniffing all the time. 

“ The child has been dreaming,” she said, 
when it was all told. “ She’s always been a 
fanciful sort of girl and you’ve put notions 
into her head that make her imagine things.” 

“And the Fairy gave me this beautiful 
pearl,” said Hilda, not paying any attention 
to Aunt Maria. 

They both looked at the pearl as Hilda 
held it out to them. No one could doubt that 
it was indeed a pearl. 

“ Pshaw! ” said Aunt Maria. “ The child 
found it and imagined all the rest.” She 
never liked to call Hilda by her name, because 
the name was not Maria. 

“ But see,” continued Hilda, “ the Fairy 


THE SIX DRESSES 207 
thought you might not believe, and so she 
gave me the power of showing you a sign. 
Look! ” 

She closed her right hand, all except her 
little finger, and then opened it. In her palm 
there lay a second pearl, exactly like the 
first. She repeated this many times, until a 
whole cupful of shimmering pearls lay in her 
mother’s lap. Aunt Maria had not a word to 
say, but sat there staring with her mouth wide 
open. 

Hilda’s mother looked very much per- 
plexed. Finally she said: 

“ Hilda, dear, this is a very, very serious 
thing. I must talk with your father about it. 
But for the present do not mention it, even to 
Mabel. You are so young, and it is all so 
strange and unexpected. What is your own 
wish about this Prince? ” 

“ Oh,” said Hilda, very demurely, “ I — I 
don’t know. I think that you and papa will 
know best.” 


208 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


“ Very well,” said her mother. “ But I am 
not in favour of it myself.” 

“I should think not!” cried Aunt Maria, 
finding her voice at last. “ I never heard of 
such a thing! Prince, indeed! You should 
wait four or five years at least; and then, if 
you turn out to be a good, steady, sound- 
minded girl, you may get a husband of whom 
you can be proud — someone like my Clarence. 
In fact, Clarence thinks quite well of you 
now, though I must say that you would have 
to be much more practical before I should 
think of such a match for him.” 

Hilda’s face grew very red. She could not 
bear Clarence, and what Aunt Maria said 
made her almost hate him. So she left the 
room and went up to her own, where she 
locked the door and thought of many things. 
But she thought most of all about the Prince 
from beyond the Shining Mountains. 

Hilda’s party was a dream. The lawn was 


THE SIX DRESSES 


209 


strung with coloured lanterns, and the whole 
house blazed with light. All of Hilda’s 
friends were there — Mabel, of course, and 
Marie and the other girls; and Walter and 
even Tubby, though he was not yet really old 
enough to go to a grown-up party. But 
Hilda had asked him because she liked him so 
much, though everyone still called him Tubby. 
Clarence came, too, and was much pleased 
with his suit of evening clothes and with a 
small moustache which he had grown. He 
kept twisting it all the time to make others 
notice it, though it wasn’t very much of a 
moustache, after all. And Frieda came, hop- 
ing to find something to make fun of after- 
wards. 

Hilda was dressed in simple white and 
looked more beautiful than ever in her life. 
The only ornament she wore was about her 
neck; for she had strung the Fairy’s pearls on 
a white silk cord, and they glowed and shim- 
mered in the most wonderful way. 


210 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
The house was filled with light and life 
and music and the sound of merry laughter 
as the dance went on. At midnight, supper 
was served, and just a few minutes before 
the time, Hilda, her father, and her mother 
went forward to a little alcove opposite the 
doors that were to be opened very soon. 

“It has been such a lovely evening,” said 
Hilda, looking at the couples that were waltz- 
ing to the strains of dreamy music. 

“Yes,” said her father, “and this is the 
end of the last dance, for it must be now the 
very hour of midnight.” 

As he spoke, the clear notes of a bugle 
were heard from without, high above the 
music of the dance. A moment later came 
the sound of horses’ hoofs, and then firm 
footsteps in the hall. The door opened and 
two stately gentlemen entered, bowing as 
they did so. The first, though old, was as 
straight as an arrow, and more than six feet 
in height. His bronzed face was partly 


THE SIX DRESSES 


211 


covered by a heavy white moustache, and he 
had an air of splendid grace and breeding. 
With him came a somewhat younger gentle- 
man, smooth-shaven and alert. Both wore 
uniforms of dark blue, laced with silver, and 
on their breasts were a score of jewelled stars 
and crosses. By their sides hung swords in 
silver scabbards. They had white leather 
boots that reached almost to their waists, with 
golden spurs gleaming at their heels. Each 
carried in his hand a silver helmet. 

The elder gentleman looked swiftly 
around the room, with a keen glance, and 
then went straight to where Hilda’s father 
stood beside her. He bowed low, and said: 

“ Sir, permit me to announce myself. I 
have the honour to be Master of the Palace 
to His Highness, Prince Caryl. My com- 
panion, whom I beg to present to you, is the 
Master of the Prince’s Horse.” 

“ It gives me pleasure to welcome you, gen- 
tlemen,” said Hilda’s father, who knew how 


212 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
to speak at such a time. For, though he was 
fond of joking, he could be very serious. 

“ I have the honour,” said the Master of 
the Palace, “ to ask, on behalf of His High- 
ness, the hand of your daughter, the Lady 
Hilda. I think, sir, you have learned al- 
ready of the hope which my princely master 
entertains.” 

“I have,” replied Hilda’s father, “but 
I am not yet prepared to give an answer to 
His Highness. I must ask that you let me 
reflect for a somewhat longer time.” 

The Master of the Palace looked deeply 
disappointed. He bowed again, and half 
turned to speak with his companion. Just 
then Hilda’s father felt a little pull at his 
sleeve, and there was Hilda blushing very 
much, but looking very earnest. 

“ Papa,” she whispered, “ don’t you think 
that — that — that perhaps the Fairy knows 
best?” 

Then she hid behind him, and buried her 


THE SIX DRESSES 218 
face in a great cluster of white roses which 
she carried. 

“ I trust, sir,” resumed the Master of the 
Palace, “ that you will not refuse. His 
Highness is everything that you could wish, 
and ” — he lowered his voice — “ and a — a lady 
in grey — the godmother of your daughter 
— has given her consent.” 

Hilda’s father spoke with a voice of de- 
cision : 

“ Then,” said he, “ do I give mine. Be 
pleased to carry back my answer to His 
Highness.” 

He turned to the whole company, who had 
stood at a distance, wondering what was tak- 
ing place: 

“ I announce,” said he, “ the coming mar- 
riage of my daughter, Hilda, to His High- 
ness, Prince Caryl, from beyond the Shin- 
ing Mountains. And I ask you all to be 
present at the marriage, here, at sunset, one 
week from this very night! ” 


214 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


A buzz of excitement filled the room. 
Everyone began exclaiming, “ Hilda is to 
be a Princess! ” 

Then the Master of the Palace knelt be- 
fore Hilda, and offered her a small gold 
casket, marvellously embossed and orna- 
mented. 

“Accept this, lady,” he said, “from 
Prince Caryl, with the devotion of his heart 
and soul.” 

Hilda took the casket and opened it. It 
was lined with dark blue velvet, upon which 
lay a ring set with a single diamond, — such a 
diamond as no one there had ever seen. It 
sparkled and blazed and glittered like ice 
and fire. 

“ Oh! ” gasped Hilda. “ It is my engage- 
ment ring. I must put it on this minute 

But I can’t!” she added in dismay. “The 
Fairy’s ring is on that finger, and it can 
never be taken off.” 

She looked quite piteous, for how could 


215 


THE SIX DRESSES 
she wear an engagement ring on any other 
finger except the real one? In her perplex- 
ity she caught at the Fairy’s ring and began 
to twist it in despair, when — lo and behold! 
— off it came as easily as any ring you ever 
saw! She gave a little cry of joy, and 
slipped on the new ring, while she placed the 
Fairy’s ring upon the fourth finger of her 
right hand. 

The music burst forth, and everyone pres- 
ent made a rush at Hilda. Mabel threw her 
arms around her neck and Marie caught her 
hands and kissed them. 

“ You two shall be my bridesmaids,” cried 
Hilda. 

“My eye!” said Tubby. “A Princess! I 
say, Hilda, you are coming on!” 

Only Frieda held back. It was as if she 
had swallowed some bitter medicine. She 
could not say a word of congratulation, but, 
while the rest were crowding around, and 
while the two gentlemen from the Prince’s 


216 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
Palace were taking their leave, she slipped 
away and went home, where she lay awake all 
night, gritting her teeth in envious anger. 

When everyone had gone, and the house 
was closed, and the lights were out except a 
very few, Hilda’s mother drew a long breath, 
and said: 

“ Well, darling, what do you think 
of it?” 

Now, Hilda thought many things all to 
herself ; but she was now a woman, and so 
she said only one thing — which, after all, was 
what a woman would very likely say: 

“ Why, mamma,” she answered, “ I think, 
as there’s only a week, it will be as much as 
we can do to get my clothes made.” 

And her mother quite agreed. But her 
father just kissed her, and didn’t ask her 
any questions. 

The next day they had dressmakers from 
the city, and the house was full of sewing- 
women and milliners and people from the 


THE SIX DRESSES 


217 


shops, until Hilda’s father locked himself up 
in his Den, and poked a little note out under 
the door to say that if they really needed 
the Den, too, he would go up and live upon 
the roof. But no one paid much attention 
to him, for he was nothing but a Man. 

It was Hilda’s mother who took charge of 
everything. 

“ You are going to be a Princess,” she said 
to Hilda ; “ and you will have everything that 
is fine and beautiful in your palace. It isn’t 
any use for us to try to prepare such clothes 
as a Princess would wear. We must sim- 
ply do the best we can in this short time, 
and give you just what we should give you 
if you were going to marry a private gen- 
tleman.” 

So by great pains and by having the 
women sew every evening, they finished a 
trousseau for Hilda. Apart from the sim- 
ple clothes which she already had, they made 
her six very handsome dresses. The first was 


218 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


her wedding dress — all white, of lace and 
silk and chiffon, and so pretty that all of 
Hilda’s friends fairly jumped up and down 
when they saw it. Then there was a lovely 
dress of pale rose, and another of pale blue, 
and a fawn-coloured travelling dress, and 
two dresses, one of voile and one of crepe 
de Chine. The last was not finished until 
the night before the wedding day, and then 
all of Hilda’s friends were asked to come 
and see them as they hung in the wardrobe 
in her room. They had a merry time to- 
gether, looking at the dresses and the other 
pretty things. Everyone was greatly ex- 
cited over the coming marriage, and all of 
them wished Hilda joy, except Frieda, who 
was eaten up by jealousy. Her face was 
the colour of lead, and when she spoke to 
Hilda she stammered and mixed her words 
all up, for she felt as though she were 
choking. 

That night she tossed and turned in bed, 


THE SIX DRESSES 219 
and scarcely slept a wink. It seemed to her 
so unfair that Hilda should have so many 
pretty dresses, and that all the girls should 
be so glad, and that she should have been 
chosen to marry a Prince. What made it 
all the harder to bear was that, though Frieda 
herself had done so many mean things to 
Hilda, and had tried to make her unhappy, 
Hilda had always been polite and kind to 
her, and had never done any mean things 
back. 

“ Oh, how I wish I could shame her in 
some way!” cried Frieda to herself, as she 
tossed about in bed. 

And the next morning she could eat noth- 
ing, but moved about looking sullen and 
heavy-eyed. She went out and sat in her 
porch, brooding over her anger, and watch- 
ing Hilda’s windows like a panther. 

The hours went by until it was three 
o’clock in the afternoon, and still Frieda sat 
there, biting her nails. Presently she saw 


220 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
Hilda’s father and mother come out and 
drive away in a carriage. 

“Huh!” said Frieda, “I suppose they’ve 
gone to see the clergyman.” 

Soon after, Hilda herself appeared, and 
walked quickly up the street toward the vil- 
lage. 

“There’s something she’s forgotten,” 
thought Frieda, “and she’s gone to buy it.” 

Then, like lightning, a thought darted into 
her mind. Hilda’s house was empty except 
for the servants, and they would be very busy 
on the lower floor. 

“ I could step into the door at the side 
porch,” thought Frieda, “ and go up the 
stairs to her room where she has all her fine 
things. Even if someone met me, they 
wouldn’t think anything about it. Hm — m! ” 

Her thoughts flashed swiftly through her 
brain. 

“ I’ll do it! ” she cried aloud. “ I’ll spoil 
her old wedding!” 


221 


THE SIX DRESSES 

She hurried into her own house, and pretty 
soon she came out again with a large paper 
bag. With it she went swiftly around the 
hedge and into the side-porch of Hilda’s 
house and up the stairs. Everything was 
very quiet. There were two great travelling 
trunks, and on the bureau and the table were 
scattered all sorts of things which had not 
yet been packed. 

“ I hope she hasn’t packed her dresses yet,” 
muttered Frieda. 

But no. When she opened the wardrobe 
there were the six dresses still hanging there 
— the wedding dress of lace and silk and 
chiff on, the pale rose dress, and the pale blue 
dress, and the travelling dress of fawn colour, 
and the two dresses of voile and crepe de 
Chine. 

“Aha!” cried Frieda, grinning with de- 
light, “ now I have my chance.” 

Out of the paper bag she took a long ink- 
bottle, nearly full of ink, and a slender paint- 


222 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
brush. She uncorked the bottle and dipped 
the brush deep in the ink. 

“There!” she said, as she gave the lace 
and chiffon a great splash with the dripping 
ink. She drew the brush back and forth 
across the lovely dress until, from the neck to 
the hem of the skirt, it looked like a dirty 
pen-wiper. 

“ Ha, ha! ” laughed Frieda, chuckling over 
the ruin. “ Now for the next one! ” 

And, taking fresh dips, she smeared the 
pale rose dress with ink, and then the pale 
blue, and then the fawn-coloured travelling 
dress, until they, too, were ruined. The two 
filmy black dresses she also inked, but be- 
cause the ink did not show so much on them 
she took a pair of scissors and cut great 
slashes in them, besides. When she had fin- 
ished she gave one look at the poor, ink- 
stained clothes on which so much labour had 
been spent. Then she hastily closed the 
wardrobe and slipped quietly down the stairs. 



Frieda Inks the Dresses 






I 


































THE SIX DRESSES 223 
“ I think Miss Hilda will have a nice little 
surprise when she begins to dress,” she 
thought to herself. 

She was trembling with excitement as she 
glided back to her own house and up into 
her bedroom. But she was glad, for she had 
ruined all of Hilda’s wedding clothes. And 
nobody had seen her. 


XII 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 

AT four o’clock Hilda went up to her 
/-% room, to look things over for the 
last time. At five the maids were to 
begin doing her hair and dressing her, but 
she wanted to be alone until then. It was 
so hard to believe that in a few hours she 
would no longer be in the home where she 
had lived ever since she was a little child. 
But she was strangely happy, for she felt 
that the Fairy knew what was best for her; 
and she could not help being proud in an 
innocent, girlish way, because she was going 
to be a Princess. 

She went about the room as if to say good- 
bye to everything. She patted the white pil- 
lows, and touched her books, and spoke to 
the pictures in the room as if they understood. 

“ Good-bye, all of you,” she said. “ But 

224 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 225 
I’ll come back sometimes to see you, and you 
mustn’t think that I’ll forget you.” 

Then she looked at herself in the mirror 
and saw in it the reflection of a lovely face, 
with flushed cheeks, and hair that tumbled 
about her forehead in a most bewitching 
manner. 

“Dear me!” she said. “ They’ll have a 
dreadful time doing my hair!” 

Then she held her engagement ring to the 
light and watched the diamond sparkle. As 
she did so, she suddenly turned from the 
window and kissed the ring in a shy little 
way. 

“ Now! ” said she. “ One more look at my 
wedding dress.” 

She opened the wardrobe wide, and the 
rays of the afternoon sun shone full into 
its recesses. Oh, horrors! What a sight she 
saw! Her wedding dress, that had been so 
dainty and so white, was one ugly mass of 
ink-stains. The lace was dabbled with black 


226 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
smears. The silk and chiffon were all dingy 
and bedaubed. And the other five dresses 
were almost worse. Every one of them was 
inked from top to bottom, and two of them 
were slashed and had great rents in them. 

Hilda gave a wail of grief and fright, and 
then burst into tears. 

“ Oh, who has done this? ” she cried. “ All 
my lovely dresses are ruined ! And the 
Prince is to come at sunset. What shall I 
do? What shall I do? ” 

She wrung her hands and sobbed so that 
she could scarcely speak. 

“And my other dresses are all packed — 
and, anyway, there isn’t any wedding dress 
among them. No girl could be married in 
a shirtwaist — and — oh, what will the Prince 
think? I can’t see him when he comes. I 
must give him up. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! ” 
The church clock struck the third quarter- 
hour. Its chime made Hilda leap to her feet. 
“Ah!” she cried. “I have my Wishes! 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 227 
It is right to use one now, for this is not just 
a child’s trouble. I will! " 

She left off sobbing, and her eyes sparkled. 

“ Oh, if only it is still true, and the Elf has 
not forgotten!” 

She closed the wardrobe, shutting out the 
sight of the ink-stained dresses. Then she 
said aloud : “ I wish for six of the most beau- 
tiful dresses that anyone ever saw.” 

And having said this she uttered the words 
that she had not spoken for so many years: 

“ Little elf, little elf, 

Come to me your ownty self. 

Make my spoken wish come true, 

As you said that you would do.” 

Ting! came a sound like that of a tiny 
silver bell. Hilda flew to the wardrobe and 
threw its doors wide open. What she saw 
made her fairly gasp with wonder and de- 
light. The inky dresses were all gone, and 
in place of them were six dresses such as 
she had never even dreamed of. The wed- 


228 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
ding 1 dress was covered with lace, but it was 
finer lace than human hands could ever make, 
for it came from the fingers of the Elves. 
Beside it, even the choicest rose-point would 
have seemed coarse and cheap. And the 
dress itself, though it was something like silk, 
was of an exquisite fabric which shimmered 
as if woven out of moonlight. Indeed, it all 
seemed like fairy cobweb and starshine, and 
the beauty of it entranced the eyes of Hilda, 
so that she could only gaze and gaze and 
gaze, as if she were in a dream. 

I cannot try to describe the other dresses. 
Each in its way was as marvellous as the wed- 
ding dress itself. The six were just a vision 
of loveliness — rose-leaf, and blue sky and the 
glimmer of light in a clear pool, all seemed 
to have taken form in these elfin gar- 
ments. 

“ Oh, you dear, dear Elf! ” cried Hilda at 
last, clapping her hands and dancing with 

joy- 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 229 

But just then a knock was heard at the 
door, and one of the maids put her head in. 

“ It’s four o’clock. May we come to dress 
you now, Miss Hilda?” 

Just before sunset, all of Hilda’s friends 
had gathered in the drawing-room, which was 
banked with flowers. Two heavy curtains 
shut off the end near the staircase down 
which the bride would come. There was a 
buzz of talk, for everybody was very much 
excited. Back in one corner stood Frieda, 
very silent and with her lips pressed tight to- 
gether. But her eyes shone and her heart 
beat fast, for now, she told herself, she was 
going to shame Hilda before all of those who 
knew her, and perhaps even keep her from 
marrying the Prince. 

“ She can’t get married in her old duds,” 
thought Frieda, “and I’ve taken care that 
she hasn’t got anything better.” 

She grinned to herself as she thought of 


230 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
how she had splashed the ink on Hilda’s 
wedding dress. No one had seen her do it. 
She was quite safe. And now she was to 
have her fun. “ She won’t ever put on any 
airs again!” muttered Frieda. 

“ What are you muttering about, Frieda? ” 
asked Tubby, who was wandering around 
with an enormous rose in his buttonhole. He 
was still rather young to be asked to a wed- 
ding, for he was only fourteen, but Hilda 
liked him so much that she wished him to 
be there. 

“You don’t look happy,” Tubby went on. 
“ Maybe you wanted to be a bridesmaid. Or 
maybe the bride — eh? Well, cheer up, and 
don’t mull over it. I shouldn’t wonder if 
Clarence might fall in love with you some 
day. And he’s a lot better than a Prince — 
or he thinks he is, anyhow.” 

“ Let me alone ! ” snapped Frieda. 
“Prince, indeed! It’d be a good joke on 
Hilda if her Prince didn’t come, after all. I 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 231 


have a sort of feeling that something is 
going to happen to this wonderful wed- 
ding.” 

“ Well,” said Tubby blandly, stroking his 
big rose, “if the Prince doesn’t come, the 
wedding can go right on just the same. I’ll 
take his place. I’ve been thinking of mar- 
riage for some time, and Hilda is the right 
sort. So you see, it’ll be a good thing all 
around if the Prince doesn’t come.” 

Just then the sun sank below the hills, and 
the lights in the house all began to shine out 
brilliantly. At the same instant, a long 
strain of distant music floated clear and sweet 
on the still evening air. Those guests who 
were nearest the great bay-window looked 
eagerly toward the east, and there, winding 
down the hillside, came what seemed to be a 
stream of fire. In a few moments they could 
make out the figures of a long train of horse- 
men riding toward the house. Many of 
the horsemen bore flaming torches. At the 


232 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
head of them rode a youth, gallant of bear- 
ing, and sitting his horse like a soldier. 

“ The Prince! The Prince! ” so went the 
word around. 

The heavy curtains parted and the clergy- 
mam who had christened Hilda entered. 
Then, no one could tell how, there came into 
the room a tall and stately lady, dressed in 
silvery grey. She stood beside the clergyman, 
and he seemed to know her, for they spoke 
together. Aunt Maria gave a sudden gasp. 

Then there was the trampling of many 
horses without, and the sharp word of com- 
mand given by the officers. And finally into 
the room was ushered a handsome young man 
with thick golden hair, and a joyous look in 
his dark eyes. He was tall and athletic, and 
every movement was full of grace. With 
him came six noblemen in blue and silver, the 
first of whom was to be his groomsman. 

The tall lady in silvery grey came forward 
to greet him; and he, too, seemed to know 



The Prince Arrives 


msm 











♦ 







































































































THE PRINCE ARRIVES 233 
her. She led him to the clergyman, and there 
he paused, while a hush came over the 
crowded room. 

“ Now,” chuckled Frieda, under her breath, 
“ here is the Prince, but where is Hilda? She 
can’t come down! She can’t come down! ” 

At this very instant, from a hidden orches- 
tra, came the strange, slow, thrilling music 
of the Wedding March. The heavy curtains 
glided apart; and there, leaning on her 
father’s arm, was Hilda, radiantly beautiful 
and seeming to float amid a pure white filmy 
mass of elfin lace. Behind her were Mabel 
and Marie, her bridesmaids. Each wore a 
bracelet of emeralds and diamonds which the 
Prince had sent them. 

The service proceeded until the last word 
of it was spoken. Then, outside the house, 
there flashed forth a thousand torches, and a 
tremendous burst of joyful music made the 
heavens ring. Within, for a few moments, 
the guests remained in their places while the 


234 HILDA AND THE WISHES 
Prince turned to Hilda and kissed her very 
tenderly. 

“ You have never seen me before,” said he, 
“but I have seen you often in my dreams. 
You do not find it strange? ” 

Hilda looked into his clear honest eyes and 
smiled. “ I think that my — our — godmother 
knows a great deal,” she said. “What she 
told me is quite true.” 

“And what did she tell you?” asked the 
Prince eagerly. 

“ Oh, never mind,” said Hilda, blushing a 
little. “ It was something good.” 

They chatted for a moment and then the 
Prince turned to Hilda’s father and mother. 

“ She will still he yours,” said he. “ For 
my palace is as much yours as it is mine.” 

“We shall come to see it,” said Hilda’s 
father. “ Really, it’s a long time since I 
lived in palaces. When I was in the Mexican 
War ” 

“ Papa! ” cried Hilda, giving him a pat on 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 235 
his cheek, “You shouldn’t tell fibs at such 
a time.” 

Finally all the guests came forward to wish 
Hilda happiness and to meet the Prince. He 
had a pleasant word for everyone, and was 
in high spirits, as well he might be, for he 
had the loveliest bride that ever was. 

“And who is this gentleman?” asked the 
Prince of Hilda. 

It was quite a young gentleman with an 
enormous rose in his buttonhole. He seemed 
quite at his ease and had a cheerful grin. 

“ Why, this is Tubby,” said Hilda, laugh- 
ing. “ No, he hasn’t any other name and 
never will have, I think. He is one of my best 
friends.” 

The Prince gave him a hearty grip of the 
hand. 

“ I say, Prince,” said Tubby, “ you know I 
rather expected to marry Hilda — er — that is 
to say the Princess, myself. It’s rather a 
facer to lose her in this sudden way.” 


236 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“ Oh,” returned the Prince, smiling, “ but, 
you see, Hilda has always belonged to me — 
both ways — backward to the day that she was 
born, and forward so long as we shall live. 
But you will learn to bear it, I fancy. And, 
by the way, don’t forget to come before long 
to my palace, just beyond the Shining Moun- 
tains. There will be horses for you to ride, 
and huntsmen to take you shooting, and 
boats, and other things that may interest 
you. Come and try them. They are yours 
whenever you care for them.” 

Tubby’s eyes glistened with pleasure. 

“Prince! ” said he. 

“ What is it? ” asked the Prince. 

“ You are all right! ” answered Tubby. 

“ And so are you! ” said the Prince, laugh- 
ing, and clapping Tubby on the shoulder. 

Clarence had been listening to this with 
much disgust. He was greatly overcome at 
the thought of meeting a Prince, and he was 
shocked to hear Tubby speak so freely. So 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 237 
he came forward bowing and scraping, and 
fingering his sandy moustache. 

“ Er — if your Royal Highness please,” he 
said, “ I’m her Royal Highness’s cousin. I 
hope your Royal Highness will pardon the 
boy Tubby for not understanding the proper 
way in which to speak to your Royal High- 
ness. He doesn’t know how they talk in 
courts, your Royal Highness.” 

The Prince looked at Clarence for a mo- 
ment, and slightly raised his eyebrows. 

“ Indeed,” he answered gravely, “ then per- 
haps I don’t know either; for Tubby seemed 
to me to speak exactly as a gentleman should 
speak.” 

Clarence was much confused and shrank 
away; and just then Hilda, looking around, 
remarked : 

“ I think that everyone has congratulated 
me now, except Frieda. Where is Frieda? I 
thought I saw her here when I came in.” 

“Yes, she was here,” said one of the other 


238 HILDA AND THE WISHES 


girls. “ But she went away suddenly. She 
said that she was very sick.” 

The time had come for Hilda to put on her 
travelling dress. She slipped upstairs with 
her mother* and before very long she came 
down the winding stairs. All her friends had 
gathered there, and the Prince stood waiting 
for her. The outer doors were flung wide 
open, and everyone started with surprise. 
The house seemed surrounded by a sea of fire. 
A thousand horsemen with blazing torches 
were massed before it, and as Hilda and the 
Prince appeared in the doorway a great out- 
burst of music came from the musicians. 

“Long live the Prince and Princess!” 
roared a thousand voices. 

There was a beautiful carriage drawn by 
six milk-white horses, at the lower steps. 
As Hilda entered it, Tubby threw half a 
bushel of rice down upon her and the Prince. 
The carriage-door closed, and the horses 


THE PRINCE ARRIVES 239 
started off at a brisk trot, yet not so fast but 
that a white satin slipper thrown by Marie 
fell upon the coachman’s seat. The thousand 
horsemen quickly formed in columns and rode 
at a distance behind the carriage, on into the 
darkness of the night, in which their torches 
flashed and flamed. 

For a long while Hilda sat in silence beside 
the Prince, as the carriage moved smoothly 
over the road that led to the Shining Moun- 
tains. At last she said : 

“ I’ve read in my books that when a girl 
marries, she ought to bring her husband some- 
thing. You never asked about it, and maybe 
you think that I have nothing to bring you. 
But I have, and it’s something more than most 
girls have.” 

“I’m sure it’s something more than any 
other girl has,” said the Prince, looking at 
Hilda’s lovely face in the half-light. 

“ Yes,” said Hilda, not understanding what 
he meant. “ It is a Wish.” 


240 HILDA AND THE WISHES 

“A wish?” asked the Prince, who now in 
his turn did not understand. 

“ Yes, a Wish. I must tell you all about 
it.” 

So Hilda told the Prince the story of the 
Elf, and of how he had given her five Wishes, 
and how four of them had now been used. 

“But,” she said as she finished, “I have 
one Wish left, and with it I can bring you 
anything you’d like to have.” 

The Prince made no answer for a little 
while. Then he drew Hilda gently to him. 

“ So you have one Wish, have you, dear? ” 
he asked. “ Well, so have I one wish, just 
one great wish — the wish to make you happy. 
And,” he added, “ I hope that I shall make 
you so very happy that you will have nothing 
else to wish for in the whole wide world.” 


THE END 























































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